The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth
by bewareofcrazies
Summary: Alternate Universe. The bond between the Marauders was unbreakable, until Peter threw it all away. Now, having survived Halloween, its up to the three remaining men to raise their children in a world where Voldemort was never destroyed.
1. The Key to Change

**Disclaimer**: I do not own Harry Potter, as much as I wish I did.

**Summary**: Alternate Universe. Harry Potter, Polaris Black, and Romulus Lupin were born into a time of war, a war that will continue to rage more than thirty years after its start. And though they do not know it, their very existence could change the tide of the war – for better or worse.

**Author's Note**: This is my first story on this website, so I apologize ahead of time if I screw something up formatting wise or if all of my edits after publishing clog your emails or something. I don't mean to, I swear! I'm just nitpicky. I love constructive criticism, and if anything doesn't make sense, don't be afraid to ask. Anyway, enjoy!

**The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth**

"_Three__ things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._"  
>- Buddha<p>

**Chapter One – The Key to Change**

"_The key to change… is to let go of fear._"  
>- Rosanne Cash<p>

"Puddlemere United definitely has it this year," James Potter said from his spot at the kitchen table.

He was a twenty-year-old man with messy black hair, hazel eyes, and dark rimmed glasses that sat upon his nose. In his lap sat a tiny little infant who seemed to be the very mirror image of the older man. At the moment, the toddler – who was named Harry Potter – was gnawing on what appeared to be a frozen golden ball. Yesterday had been the little boy's birthday, and the teething ball had been a gift from a family friend. James's knee was bouncing where Harry sat in attempts to keep him entertained as he continued his somewhat heated debate with the other man at the table.

"No way," said the other man, Sirius Black. "It's going to the Montrose Magpies once again. History says so."

Sirius was a handsome man with shaggy dark hair and stormy gray eyes. He had a smile that most would call infectious, and at the moment, his rather large hands were wrapped around his wand, lazily waving it back and forth. The newspaper that was delivered that morning was slowly zooming through the air. He first started to do this as a way to entertain Harry, who had been fussy earlier, but the infant had lost complete interest by now and yet Sirius kept it up. Probably for his own amusement.

"The Ballycastle Bats might have a chance too?" Peter Pettigrew piped up eagerly, wanting to be part of the conversation.

Blond and blue-eyed, Peter was incredibly adorable by most people's standards but not exactly what one would call handsome with his overly plump appearance. He was also not what one would call incredibly intelligent either, if his friends were quite honest. And they were his friends, even if Peter had a dark secret that he was keeping from all of them, a secret that he sometimes regretted. But right now? He wasn't even thinking about it. He was just thinking about being here with his friends.

James made a face at the mention of the Bats Quidditch Team, and turned to the last man sitting at the table. "I don't know. What do you think, Remus?"

Remus Lupin looked up from his cup of tea that he had been staring at, deep in thought. He blinked at James, confused as to what he was being asked. "What?"

This last man was perhaps their wisest and definitely the quietest friend of the foursome, and yet he was also the one of the four who still had so much to learn and room to grow. Remus had sandy-brown hair that was already flecking with gray and amber eyes; the signs of past and even future full moons were painfully obvious for the young werewolf. Watching his bespectacled friend give an almost painful sigh, he quirked a smile, realizing almost immediately that the talk must have been talking about Quidditch. Again.

"Oh, it's Puddlemere United. Always," he answered smartly.

James's face lit up immediately. "Yes! Thank you! See? This is why you're my best friend!" he announced. Harry began to clap as well as if also pleased by this answer.

Sirius blinked and turned away from Remus to stare at James. "What!" he gasped. "I thought I was your best friend!"

Before James's declaration, though, Sirius had been glaring at Remus suspiciously. The more time that Sirius spent around Remus – and he had to admit that lately the less time he spent with the werewolf, the better – the more he was becoming convinced that he had switched sides and become a Death Eater. He was constantly spacing out and always seemed to have a lot on his mind, not to mention his unexplained disappearances and reappearances. It was just all too suspicious. Now, if he could only get James to agree and stop telling Remus vital information, then maybe he could actually keep his best friend safe.

James did not even have to think about a proper response as at that moment, an owl came swooping into the Potter's kitchen at Godric's Hollow and dropped two letters: one in front of Sirius and the other in front of Remus.

For a moment, neither of them moved until Remus reached out and picked up the one in front of him. He furrowed his eyebrows. "The Wizarding Children and Family Services Department?" he murmured out loud, looking very much confused.

Sirius blinked at hearing that and reached out, picking up his letter as well. "Me too," he responded quietly.

"What's the Wizarding Children and, uh, Family... thing?" asked Peter, blinking confusedly up at his friends.

Sirius stared at him as if he had two heads. "Peter, you work at the Ministry."

"So?"

Remus sighed but offered a small smile. "It's like the Muggle equivalent of Social Services."

"What's that?" Peter asked, looking as lost as ever.

This time, though, even James and Sirius were looking over at him with blank expressions upon their faces.

Feeling like a dictionary, a feeling that he was not foreign to, Remus spouted off, "It's the department within the Muggle government, or in this case, the Ministry of Magic that is dedicated to trying to improve the quality of life for all by trying to promote equality. They encourage social change, social justice, and equal rights for all. They also deal with family situations that have turned out badly and help with relocating children and whatnot."

Sirius blinked. "Yeah, that..." He shook his head and looked back down at his still sealed letter. "Okay... I kinda get why you would be getting one, what with the fighting for equal rights bit, I guess. But why would I be getting a letter from them?" He paused. "Unless they're finally going to arrest my mother for being a downright bitch the last twenty years! That would be awesome." He got a dreamy look on his face.

James reached over and smacked him. "You'll never know until you read it, will you?"

"My thoughts exactly," Remus muttered. His letter was already torn open, and he was in the process of unfolding and reading the contents. His eyes widened slightly and he sucked in a breath.

Peter blinked. "What is it?"

Remus had no answer for him, apparently shocked into silence. His face had gone an unnaturally pale and he was obviously in the process of rereading the letter, as though hoping he had somehow misread it or maybe convinced that he had misunderstood.

Now James was starting to get worried. He turned to look at Sirius and said, "Padfoot, what's going on?"

Sirius didn't answer. He, too, had gotten his letter open and was now staring at the letter in shock. "Well, that's very interesting," he said in a slightly shaky voice.

"What's very interesting?" asked James. That did not sound like the reaction of someone who had just received very bad news. "What's going on?"

Neither man answered.

James rolled his eyes and snatched the letter from Sirius who didn't even seem to notice. He read through it and also went wide-eyed. "What the hell?"

"Er... guys?" Peter asked hesitantly, not feeling as bold as James to just snatch a letter away. Remus shakily handed his letter over to Peter before he dropped his head into his hands, seemingly overwhelmed by the information. Peter nervously shifted as he took the letter and read through it slowly. As he finished, his mouth was dropped in shock. "Is this... for real?"

"I don't think the Ministry pulls pranks, Wormtail!" Sirius snapped.

Peter shrunk away from him.

One night, approximately a year and a half ago, Sirius and Remus were both involved in a one-nightstand with two Muggle women that they met in a bar, something that while not that uncommon for Sirius Black was definitely out of character for Remus Lupin. Either way, both of their little escapades seemed to have caught up with them as the two women that were involved wound up pregnant.

Apparently, shortly after being born, both of the children that were the results of this night were put up for adoption and quickly entered into Muggle Foster Care. However, within the last month, both of them seemed to have started to have several occurrences of accidental magic that left many Muggles needing to have their memories wiped. Finally, after the sixth incident, it was decided that the children would be removed from Muggle Foster Care and moved into the Magical equivalent.

During a check-up before sending the boys off, a routine genetic identification charm had been cast, though both were expected to just be poor Muggle-borns. Surprisingly, the two children in question had markers that very closely resembled two wizards whose genetic codes were on file. Sirius Black and Remus Lupin both had their DNA on file thanks to Sirius's time as an auror and Remus being registered as a werewolf. The letter concluded by informing the two gentlemen that they were expected to come into St. Mungo's on Friday for another test to be run to confirm these results, and everything else would be explained and dealt with at that time.

When Lily came home later that day, she found the four men still sitting around the table in a state of shock. James had at least had enough sense to put Harry down in his crib when he had fallen asleep in his lap, but otherwise none of them had moved, unable or unwilling to do so. She stared at all of them oddly before she walked up and picked up one of the letters that was obviously the cause of the strange behaviour. Her green eyes widened as they swept across the parchment.

"Is this...?" she started, stumbling over her own words. "I mean, is it _possible_? Do you even know who these women are?"

"Yes, it's possible. And yeah, I remember her, Virginia Mobridge," said Sirius slowly, staring at the letter on the table.

"And Dakota Mobridge," continued Remus. "They're Muggles, sisters, and worked at a Muggle pub. Sirius and I ran into them when we were having a few drinks about... a year and a half ago."

"We were drunk—_really _drunk—and these two beautiful brunettes walked up to us and started hitting on us… and one thing led to another basically."

"Why were you two getting drunk, though, exactly?" Lily snapped, unable to keep the accusatory tone out of her voice.

There was so much that could have happened. They were drunk, in the middle of Muggle London, and Voldemort could have waltzed right in and offed both of them. She wanted to scream and shout at them for being so stupid, but there was something in their expression that made her pause. It was as though they were trying to suppress a rather painful memory, and at her question, Remus looked down at the floor as Sirius looked over at Remus with something akin to a glare. Lily and James shared a confused look. Most of her earlier anger faded at the looks on their faces.

"We had a fight just before that," said Remus slowly.

"You and Sirius?" James repeated, trying to make sure that he was hearing them right. "A... a physical fight?"

"Yes," Sirius said plainly, crossing his arms over his chest defiantly.

"What about?" Peter asked quietly.

Both men were silent for a moment.

Remus swallowed. "About who the spy was." He paused. "Sirius... seemed to have decided it was me, and he decided to deal with the... ah... problem personally."

"Sirius!" Lily gasped, staring at him with wide eyes. James's eyes also widened as guilt and anger flashed across his face.

Sirius continued to stare at them both defiantly. "I probably shouldn't have hit him," he conceded through a locked jaw, "but my first concern will always be yours and Harry's safety."

"It was over quickly," assured Remus in a low voice that Lily knew meant he wasn't telling them all of it, but she wasn't sure she wanted to hear how far Remus and Sirius had gone in hurting one another, "and neither of us was really hurt. We cleaned ourselves up and went to a pub to "drown out our sorrows." That's when... we ran into them."

"And, well, I'm sure you could guess what happened from there," Sirius said, with a slight roll of his eyes, but the innuendo that usually would come from a statement like that was not there.

This was possibly the first time James had ever really seen the physical evidence of the stress of their safety had caused his friends. His family was falling apart before their eyes. Peter, unable to take the story and tension anymore, left shortly after the revelation. And Remus, who had not been free from a glare from Sirius pretty much since this painful memory was brought up, finally just got up and left himself. Still, even as he walked out, Lily caught him and pulled him into a fierce hug.

"I trust you, Remus," she whispered into his ear.

He gave her a genuine smile back. "Thank you," he whispered back, and she believed that he meant it.

When she walked back into the kitchen, she glared at Sirius for a moment before taking a breath. "I don't care what reservations or suspicions you have toward Remus lately, Sirius," she said quite plainly, "but on Friday, you two are going to go through this together. No matter what happens. You hear me, Black?"

Sirius tried to protest, but James stood up and nodded at his wife's words. "Lily's right. Friday, both of you are going together and figuring this out together. I will walk you both to St. Mungo's together and drop you off there if I have to. Are you going to make me do that?"

The black-haired man sighed but shook his head no.

When Friday came, Sirius and Remus met up at Potter Manor to reassure both James and Lily that they would be heading to St. Mungo's together before they headed off. Sirius had plans of ditching the werewolf as soon as they left, but as they tumbled out of the floo into the atrium of the wizarding hospital, Sirius actually found himself being quite happy that he wasn't doing this alone. It was almost easy to forget about his suspicions for his friend as he followed the sandy-haired man through the halls. Remus, for his part, was looking and acting a lot less suspicious than normal and just seemed like a man who didn't seem to know what to do with himself, a feeling that Sirius could identify with at that moment.

Remus was trying not to think about spies or the tension between himself and Sirius at the moment, and instead found himself slightly alarmed as they took the lift all the way to the fourth floor, the floor reserved mostly for victims of irreversible spell damage. He looked over at Sirius and realized that the other man was completely oblivious to where they were headed, so he kept his mouth shut. But he could not help and think – had something else happened to these children that had been left out of the letter?

As they walked off the lift, the lady at the front desk pointed them down the hall and into what appeared to be an office of some sort. Sirius and Remus awkwardly moved to take a seat, their eyes taking in the moving portraits and strange models that hung about the room along with the bookshelf that appeared to be filled with nothing but books that one would be able to find in the Restricted Section.

After a moment, the door opened, and they both looked up to see a wizard in light blue hospital robes walk in. Remus furrowed his eyebrows at how familiar the man was, but he could not place him.

But Sirius's eyebrows disappearing into his hairline told another story as he gasped out, "Ted!"

Ted Tonks looked up from what he was reading and grinned at them. "Hello, Sirius, long time no see."

Sirius seemed to be spluttering for a moment before got up and managed to give the man a hug. "What are you doing here?" he asked dumbly.

"I work here," Ted said, an amused smile on his lips.

Sirius went slightly pink. "I know, but..."

Ted held up his hands in surrender. "Don't worry. I'm just here to oversee the genetic testing goes correctly. As soon as Granolith gets here, we can get started." Seeing the two confused looks he received, he explained, "He has been put in charge of the infants' cases." He grinned a bit as he looked at Sirius. "You really have gotten yourself into quite a pickle this time, haven't you?"

There was a twinkle in his eyes that neither man was sure they liked.

After a moment of silence, Remus sucked in a breath. "Um, Ted," he started awkwardly, getting the man's attention. "Why are we on this floor? Is... is there something wrong with them?"

Ted smiled easily. "Not at all. Along with being the ward for those that have been affected by irreversible spell damage... This is also the long-term stay ward. Patients who are expected to stay for longer than say it takes to treat a Kneazle bite and then leave are left to stay here. The Ministry decided that it was best that the infants remain in our care until they figure out what's going to happen to them."

Remus found himself giving a sigh of relief, and even Sirius who was shocked once he realized what floor they were on seemed to relax at the reassurance that everything was okay. At that moment, the door opened again, and this time a wizard with dark gray robes walked in. He looked at the other three occupants and nodded.

"Good. Are we ready to get started?" The question was directed at Ted.

Ted nodded. "I believe so."

Granolith moved to sit down as he watched the two young men across from them. "Hello, Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black. Generally, I would see you each separately to discuss your cases privately, but Ted has told me that the two of you are good friends and that hearing each other's personal information is not a problem. Is this true?"

Remus shifted a bit, pretty sure that Sirius was not going to be okay with that. But Sirius had made a promise to James, and he never backed out on promises to his best friend, so he nodded immediately. Seeing this movement out of the corner of his eye, the werewolf immediately followed suit, quite glad that he wasn't going to have to go through this alone, even if there was a constant tension in the room when they were together lately.

"Good. I am Granolith, and I am the children's case worker. I have a few forms that I need you to fill out to start out with, and then Ted will go back with you to do the testing." As he said this, he pulled out his wand and waved it, making two stacks of parchment and two quills to appear out of nowhere.

Remus grabbed the quill immediately and began to fill in the blanks on the parchment. Sirius hesitated a moment.

"What do we do if these are our sons?"

"You will be expected to pay into the Ministry of Magic to cover child-support at the very least," he said simply.

"Could we take them home, though, if they are our children?" Remus asked slowly, his head still slightly bowed over the papers. More than for Sirius, for whom he expected the answer would have been a definite yes, he was asking for himself. With his condition, he had never really considered himself able to have a family. Would this even be allowed?

The wizard looked slightly taken aback. He leaned forward and studied Remus from behind his square spectacles. "Are you asking because you're a werewolf?"

A shiver ran down Remus's spine at how he said it so blatantly. Remus lowered his quill and parchment and looked at him. "Yes," he said quietly, pretty sure that he had no colour left in his face.

Beside him, Sirius had not even begun to write. He was gripping his quill tightly, his usual protectiveness coming out for his friend. The past year and a half that they had been not trusting each other and avoiding each other flew out the window in that moment. How could they even _think_ about not letting Remus see his own child! – assuming it was his child.

"Under normal circumstances... no. You wouldn't."

Remus closed his eyes painfully at the words, and he ignored the way that Sirius growled angrily next to him. So, this was really more of a formality for him. He sighed, resigning himself to this fate as he went back to filling out the forms when Granolith continued.

"However, these are not exactly normal circumstances."

Remus's writing stilled, and he looked up, finding a hopeful expression on his face. When did his sudden desire turn into wanting to be a father, an option he had always thrown out the window?

Granolith saw the expression and smiled. "Had the children not been taken into Wizarding custody, you would have been able to walk into the Muggle Foster Care and taken custody of your son without any issue... Well, other than the miles of red tape that Muggles seem to love to put up. They have their own way of making things complicated," he seemed amused at that as he grinned at himself. He cleared his throat. "But I digress, since these boys are not even officially put into the Magical system yet... I see no reason not to treat this as a Muggle case where I am simply giving the child off to his biological father, and that's all that matters. Of course, that's _if_ either of them are actually your child." He turned to Sirius. "And, of course, the same applies to you, Mr. Black. If you want to take custody, it's all yours."

Remus could feel Sirius looking at him, and he turned to find the other young man grinning. The last time Sirius had looked at him with that sort of expression was far too long ago to remember, and it made Remus smile back. There was something terrifying about this situation, and yet they were just kind of grinning at each other despite it. Remus turned back to the parchment and quickly began to scribble all of the needed information across it. Sirius followed his example and began to fill out the sheets. Nearly half an hour had gone by when Remus finally finished, managing to not even flinch when he had to write in that he was a werewolf. He pushed the parchment onto Granolith's desk.

Ted stood as he saw him finish and smiled at him. "Ready?" he asked as Remus stood. At seeing Remus's semi-nervous nod, he led him out of the room.

Sirius finished five minutes later and handed over the parchment. As he was leaving the office, Remus was coming back rubbing his arm and muttering about something hurting. A few moments later, Sirius knew what.

He yelped loudly as one of the healers pushed the needle into his arm and took his blood. He grimaced as he saw the nurse take the little tube with his blood and placed it in a little holder next to what looked like to be Remus's blood. He glared over at Ted who was standing by the vials with a smirk on his face.

"Needles, really?" Sirius asked, glaring.

Ted grinned over at him. "I find that it's more precise and gives me the chance to run several tests without needing the owner of the blood in the room unlike the Wizarding method. Speaking of which, you're all done."

Sirius raised an eyebrow. "That was it?"

He nodded. "I'll need about ten to twenty minutes to run some tests, charms, and whatnot just to be sure. But as soon as I have the results, I'll come find you," he promised, gesturing that he can go.

But the black-haired man hesitated. "Could I at least see the kid?" asked Sirius.

Ted smiled a bit and nodded slowly. "Remus asked the same thing. Take this hall all the way down, take a left, and it's the room at the very end. Give the woman there your name and she'll point you from there."

Sirius smiled gratefully and followed his directions. He walked into an office room and before he even opened his mouth, the woman behind the counter pointed to Sirius's right. He shrugged and went though the doorway. Remus was already in there. He was kneeling by one of the two baby cribs in the room. He didn't even acknowledge Sirius when he came in—he was so enamoured by whoever was in the crib.

Sirius walked over to the other crib and gazed in. His eyes widened slightly as he leaned toward the baby to get a better look. The little boy had loads of shaggy black hair already, big hands, and his wide brown eyes landed on the man that stood over him. The little boy reached out and Sirius just instinctively picked him up.

"What do you make of this?" Remus asked quietly, still not taking his eyes off the boy in the crib he was standing by.

Sirius glanced in the other crib and again, his eyes went wide. The other little boy had a head full of light brown hair, tiny ears, and wide blue eyes. The little boy seemed content to stay in his crib as he crawled from one end and back again.

"I think the possibility of these being our sons is very likely. The only difference I see is the eyes."

"Does anybody else get a sense of déjà vu?"

They shared an amused glance.

"We need to fire-call Lily," said Sirius. "She wanted to know what was going on."

Remus nodded. "All right. I'll go make the call since Mini-Sirius seems quite attached."

Sirius gave a bark-like laugh. It was so easy to forget about a war and spies and everything else when such an innocent piece of life was staring up him like he was at the moment. The little boy in his arms was clinging quite tightly to the front of his Auror robes; he had had every intention of going into Auror Headquarters after this was over, but the longer he stared at the little boy in his arms, the more unlikely he realized that was going to happen.

By the time Remus returned, Sirius had managed to get the little boy back in his crib. He looked up, about to ask what Lily said, when Ted walked in and told them that they had the results. They walked back to the office that they had filled out the forms in. Remus and Sirius sat down and looked from Ted to Granolith expectantly.

"Mr. Lupin, Mr. Black—the tests came back positive. You two _are_ the fathers of these boys."

Sirius let go of a breath that he didn't realize he was holding, and he turned to look at the other Marauder in the room. Remus was smiling to himself, a look that was somewhere mixed between fear and elation planted on his face.

"Now if you are still willing to take these boys in," Remus immediately nodded and there was no hesitation on Sirius's part either, "then all we need is for you to sign here. This signature will bind you as the children's legal guardians. Their welfare will be in your hands. Do you understand?"

Both men nodded immediately. As soon as the parchment was pushed toward them, signatures were flying across the page, sealing their fate. Granolith looked at each signature as if to make sure that it was legit before he nodded.

"What happened to their mothers?" Remus found himself asking hesitantly as Granolith banished the paperwork, supposedly to his office.

"Dakota and Virginia Mobridge are still alive and well, don't worry," Granolith said, seeing the look on their face. "They apparently just agreed that they were too young to be parents and gave up their babies together. While in the Muggle foster care, they were allowed visitation with them, and we would like to keep that up to avoid too many questions." He noticed Sirius and Remus's startled looks and continued, "Of course, they no longer have any parental rights. It's completely up to you. But I will be providing you with their contact information anyway."

Remus sighed and ran his hand down his face. This was just a lot to process at once. "What about..." the werewolf hesitated. "Is my son a werewolf?" he finally just blurted out, finding himself almost choking on the word "son" more-so than on the word werewolf. It was strange how quickly things changed.

Ted smiled at him kindly. "I can answer that. After I did a DNA test to see if you were the father and it came back positive, I had a feeling you might ask that, so I went ahead and tested for lycanthropy as well."

"And?"

"No, he's not a werewolf. He's perfectly healthy."

Remus felt a huge weight lift off his chest, and he sighed in relief. _Thank Merlin_, he thought to himself, taking a moment to just bask in the news. Next to him, he felt Sirius clap a hand on his shoulder, as if in congratulations, and he was glad for his friend's support there.

"You never told us what their names were," said Sirius a little distractedly. His attention was on Remus.

"Their mothers never gave them names, so the foster care assigned them names instead," said Granolith. "As of right now, they are Jake Morrison and Max Hamilton." As he said the names, he looked at Remus first and then Sirius, letting them know which was which. "But seeing as the Wizarding World doesn't necessarily follow Muggle law, we are already prepared to change their names seeing as how they are so young that we do not believe it will have any real impact on them. Of course, we will start with their surnames – given to them by the first foster families they were placed with – and we can also change the first name if you like. Even give them a middle name, if you so desire. It is up to you."

The two new fathers looked at each other and slowly leaned back in their chairs in thought. They hadn't counted on having to name them. Sure, Sirius could have kept his son's name as Max, but to him, it felt so impersonal. Never would he have considered that name for himself. And though Sirius knew that Remus's middle name was John, he knew he would never consider naming his son Jake. At least, that's what Remus's face had said when he heard the name.

Sirius rubbed his chin in thought. Andromeda, his favourite cousin and wife to the Healer in the room, had continued the tradition of naming their child after a star even if it was a tradition that the dark name of Black shared, so he might as well too. Exactly what star to name him after, though, was the question that left him quiet for several moments. Remus was the first to speak.

"I want to change his name," he began quietly, almost uncertainly, "to Romulus Matthew Lupin."

Sirius caught the glance in his direction and realized that Remus was looking for his reaction. It reminded Sirius of when Remus was a first year. He used to have this habit of constantly glancing toward James or Sirius to see if they appreciated or approved of his suggestions, always afraid of losing his new friends. They had not realized where his fear came from then, but Sirius realized with slight guilt that he knew where it was coming from now. He managed a true grin for his friend and nodded. Remus smiled gratefully, even letting out a breath of air that he seemed to have been holding in, and nodded back toward him, almost encouragingly. Still, even as Granolith wrote it down, he thought. He wanted the name to mean something like Romulus meant to Remus. Their names were connected. Suddenly, it was obvious.

Grinning, Sirius said, "Polaris Gideon Black. That's what I want for him."

Remus grinned over at him and gave a nod, showing his own approval for the chosen name. Sirius grinned back, and in that moment, there was no war or suspicion, just the crazy fear and joy of suddenly being parents.

Both of the young men were loaded up with the infants, a bag full of their things from the foster care, plus some complimentary starter items from the hospital courtesy of Ted, before they were heading down to the atrium to head back to Potter Manor. Two minutes later, they were tumbling out of the Potter fireplace, having travelled by floo since it's the only way to get to the Potter's with the wards up. They immediately came face to face with Lily and James who had Harry between them.

A staring contest between the four adults lasted for only about a minute before Polaris unceremoniously spat up all over Sirius's auror robes.

James grinned. "Welcome to parenthood, Padfoot."


	2. A Family in Crisis

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter. Not yet anyway... Muahahahahahah!

**Summary: **Harry Potter, Polaris Black, and Romulus Lupin have been sheltered their whole lives, hidden away from the world by their parents' fears of the dangers that await them. With the war still raging and hope lost in the world, three best friends are about to learn about the evils and not-so-evils of life.

**Author's Note:** Last chapter was a bit lighthearted overall, I know, and though the story will have many lighthearted moments - they _are_ the Marauders (originals and next generation) after all - this is meant to be a relatively serious story. I think this chapter helps to set the tone!

**The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth**

"_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._"  
>- Buddha<p>

**Chapter Two – A Family in Crisis**

"_We just want to work and make our family happy._"  
>- David Mendez<p>

"I thought you and Remus moved past this," James said with a sigh.

Exactly one week ago, Sirius and Remus came tumbling out of the Potter Manor living room fireplace with their sons having just gained custody. Romulus and Polaris had been accepted into their little family without a second thought, and James was happy to offer any fathering advice that he could muster. That day, it had been hard to even spot any sort of problems between the two canine Marauders.

Unfortunately, that did not last.

Despite how happy Harry had seemed to have two new playmates and how pleased Romulus and Polaris were to provide him and each other with said company, Remus and Sirius had not been by at the same time since. At first, James thought maybe it was just coincidence. Remus would show up for tips here or there at times when Sirius just so happened to be busy and vice versa, but now he realized that they were doing it on purpose. More than on purpose, actually, considering that Sirius had not actually left their house in four days, meaning that Remus had not been by at all.

The only signs that he still was around were letters that he was sending James and Lily asking for advice on this or that. He had been sorely tempted to send a letter back telling him to get his arse over here or else he wasn't going to tell him a damn thing, but then he remembered how stubborn the werewolf could be. With a response like that, James might be lucky to see him again in five weeks, if that.

"What made you think that?" Sirius asked, deadpanned.

He saw no reason to even pretend that there was nothing going on anymore. Every day, the Potters seemed to be in more danger than they were the day before. The time for pussyfooting around the issue of the spy was behind them. Now, he had to convince them that he was right before somebody got hurt. If that meant shoving it down their throat that Remus had betrayed all of them, he would. He just wished he had more evidence than he did, but to him, what he knew was plenty.

At the moment, he and James were sitting in the living room. A playpen was set up in the middle of the room for Harry and Polaris, who were in the process of gabbing in their own made up language. It made both of the older men smile to realize that their sons got along so well, despite only being in each other's company for seven days now. If they had not known better, it could have easily been mistaken that Harry and Polaris had known each other since they were born.

This was close enough.

"When you two came back here last week, it just... I don't know. Seemed like old times," James admitted, watching his friendly with a sad expression.

Sirius tried not to feel guilty about that sadness. He knew he was doing the right thing. Maybe a part of it was coming from the fact that now he had Polaris to watch after as well. He had to keep him safe, no matter what anybody else said. He had to keep both Polaris and Harry safe, even if Harry was only his godson. He had the responsibility of both of them on his shoulders. So, even if he was being a little harsh to a friend (_former_ friend, he told himself strongly), it had to be done.

Instead, he threw a careless grin on and looked over at his best friend. "Really? Having three toddlers in the house reminded you old times? I think I'm glad I missed those times."

"Sirius, every time you're over it's like having an extra toddler in the house," James deadpanned. Then, he sighed. "And you know that's not what I meant."

The dog animagus just gave an uncomfortable shrug as his response.

James looked off for a moment. "Friday... things felt like the way they were supposed to be. You know? Like... things were finally back to normal, and it was just great. You, me, Remus... all with our sons playing together... Peter wasn't there, of course, but he'll eventually get married and have kids too, and then it will be perfect."

Sirius blinked at him. "James... you've turned into a girl," he laughed, smirking.

The other man just shrugged. "So? What's wrong about wanting all four of us to stay friends and letting our kids grow up together?"

When put like that, Sirius found he didn't have an answer. "Nothing, I guess."

"And technically, Romulus and Polaris are cousins, aren't they? Their mothers were sisters, right?"

"Yeah..."

"It's even more reason why they should all be together, playing together," James said, sighing.

Feeling uncomfortable, Sirius swallowed. "Yeah..." he said noncommittally. How could he agree to something like that when he felt like having Remus around them all the time would put everybody in danger? Deciding that he didn't want to stay on this topic anymore, Sirius smiled over at his friend. "Listen, James, I wanted to ask you something."

James looked over at him. "What is it?"

Sirius rubbed his neck and swallowed. "Well, I was thinking, and I want to make you and Lily Polaris's godparents."

"No," was the immediate answer.

Sirius's eyebrows disappeared into his hairline. "What?"

"No," James repeated evenly.

"You're... you're joking, right?"

"Not even a little bit."

Sirius rubbed at his face. "But why!" he spluttered.

James sighed and looked at him. His expression was serious but not mean in anyway, giving Sirius the distinct impression that his friend was not just being a jerk because he could. "Because," he said, heavily, "I don't want you making a decision like this when everything is so messed up."

Rubbing at his face, Sirius shook his head. "I don't understand."

"Right now, there's so much suspicion. You're not even considering Remus or Peter for godfather! You just went straight to me, because you know you can trust me," said James, sounding actually sad as he said that.

"Isn't that the point?" Sirius sighed, frustrated. "I trust you more than anyone else, Prongs, meaning that I'd trust you with my son in a heartbeat. Isn't that who a godfather is supposed to be!"

"Of course," he began hesitantly.

"Then what's the problem!" Sirius burst out, confused.

"Sirius, I just..." James sighed. He seemed to be struggling with his words as much as Sirius was struggling to understand where he was coming from. "Did you even think to ask Peter or Remus?"

The gray-eyed man blinked. "Peter? The same guy who nearly dropped your week old son when you first brought Harry home? Or the guy who squeaks in fright every time he begins to cry? The same guy who nearly fainted the first time Harry spat up in front of him?"

He almost smiled. "Okay. But what about Remus? He's been amazing with Romulus."

Sirius's gaze hardened. "You know my theory on him."

"Padfoot..."

"No, listen. There is a war going on," said Sirius, his voice leaving no room for laughter. It was quite uncharacteristic for the usually easygoing young adult to get so sober, even during war talk. "Any one of us could die at any moment. I want to make sure that Polaris has a good home to go to if I'm next."

"Then put me and Lily in your Will," James said immediately. Every member of the Order had one. "But don't name us officially as Polaris's godparents. Not yet."

Still not getting it, Sirius growled, frustrated. "Fine. When can I finally officially name you his godparents?"

Feeling a little defeated, the stag animagus gave a small sigh. "...Six months."

"Six months?" he repeated, dumbfounded. "Why?"

"Just six months. And if you haven't changed your mind, I'll accept it then. Alright?" James implored him, holding out his hand to shake on it.

Sirius sighed. "Alright. In six months, assuming neither of us is dead in that time." He paused, seeing James's look. Rolling his eyes, he added on, "And assuming that I haven't changed my mind – which I won't."

"That's all I ask," James said gently.

He knew his best friend didn't understand his reasoning, and he really didn't expect him to. Somewhere, in the back of his head, he had always imagined the four of them growing up together, getting married together, having kids together, and then their friends being best friends. He had mentally decided that Sirius would be his children's godfather, and he would be the godfather of either Remus or Peter's children. When Sirius had children, he had decided, whoever he wasn't the godfather of would end up being the godfather of Sirius's kid, and then the other two would be the last link.

He knew he was kind of being naive to think this way, but he couldn't just let Sirius make such a hasty decision during a time like this, when James knew he wasn't even considering his other two friends. Peter was skittish around Harry at the moment, and they had not even seen him interact with Romulus or Polaris yet, but James knew that he would get better with children with time. And Remus... The more Sirius brought it up, the more James was starting to believe him if he was being honest with himself, but parenthood could change people. Maybe he could be saved...

"Look," Sirius said suddenly, leaning forward with a grin.

James turned to look at what his friend was staring at and grinned as well. Harry and Polaris had situated themselves in opposite corners and had figured out how to start rolling Harry's teething quaffle back and forth between them, playing their own version of catch.

Polaris rolled the quaffle a little off course, sending it into one of the empty quaffles. "Uh-oh!" he chimed but was still grinning happily.

Harry simply leaned forward and pushed himself up, getting himself up on unsteady legs and wobbled over to the corner to pick up the quaffle. Then, as if deciding that getting back to his other corner was too much work, he just plopped down right there before rolling it back to Polaris.

"He's getting better at walking," Sirius said with a grin.

James nodded. "Every day, he gets stronger." He looked over at Sirius. "Does Polaris walk yet?"

The gray-eyed man shook his head. "Not from what I've seen. He just pulls himself up and crawls."

He nodded. "If he's pulling himself up, walking's not too far off. Harry ended up walking not three days later."

"I think he wants to walk... he might just not trust me fully yet. When he does, he'll come to me," Sirius said, though he was smiling.

James just grinned at him. "You're really turning out to be a great dad, you know that?"

The other man genuinely seemed surprised by that. "Really?"

"Really," he said. "I can already tell that you love him and would do anything for him. That's always the first step."

Sirius swallowed thickly. "Anything," he repeated, nodding, agreeing with him. "I'd do... anything."

Knocking sounded from the front door, cutting off James's response. Both men looked up confused. They had not been expecting anyone, and Lily would not return home by knocking on the door. They both sat there, tense, not knowing what to do or expect. Logically, James knew it wasn't Death Eaters. When was the last time a Death Eater actually knocked at the door, after all? Not to mention that he was pretty sure that the wards around the home would stop that sort of thing.

But either way, he still found himself reaching for his wand as he stood from the sofa. Beside him, Sirius was doing the same and taking on the same uncertain yet defensive stance. Perhaps it was their Auror training or maybe they were just being paranoid parents, but they could not take any chances.

James led the way to the door where he stopped to look through the peephole. Immediately, he sighed in relief.

"It's Remus," he said, lowering his wand. Sirius did not do the same. James glared at him. "He has Romulus with him." They stared off for a moment before Sirius finally backed down. Once the other wizard's wand was put away, James opened the door and smiled at the werewolf. "Hey, Remus. Come on in!"

The sandy-haired wizard shifted nervously. "Uh... no thanks. I'm not staying." He licked his lips. "I was just... I was hoping that you would watch Romulus tonight. Possibly for most if not all of tomorrow too."

"Of course—" James started to say but was cut off.

"Why? Where are you going, Remus?" Sirius asked sharply.

Remus stared at the dark-haired man with a hard almost hurt look. "Seriously?" he said quietly.

Sirius didn't back down. "Yes. Seriously. Where are you going?"

Now the werewolf's amber eyes were starting to shine a little uncomfortably. In a slightly strangled voice, Remus answered, "Tonight's the full moon. Romulus can't be there." Sirius physically took a step back in shock at hearing that as he realized what he had just said. Remus looked at James, a pleading look on his face. "Please."

James felt sick to his stomach. He didn't even know how many full moons they had missed now. It was at the point where they had lost track of the moon cycle, something that Remus would never be able to forget. And now he had a son... "Of course, Moony. Don't worry about it." He reached out and gently pulled Romulus out of Remus's arms. The little one-year-old seemed to not even notice as he simply moved his head a bit before supposedly drifting off once again.

Gesturing toward the toddler tiredly, Remus said, "He's been sleeping all day. He shouldn't be any trouble, but just in case..." He then removed a bag from his shoulder that neither man had realized was there before. It was a tattered leather bag that looked just as worn as the exhausted looking werewolf appeared to be. He held the bag out to James who took it with his free hand. "He's really easy to take care of. You read to him, and he's happy. He also likes the Muggle telly if he gets a little cranky. He doesn't seem to like telling me when he's hungry, so I usually have to wake him up for meal times." He swallowed nervously. "Um..."

"It's okay, Remus," James said softly, offering a smile. "I'll take good care of him."

Remus gave a tired smile. "I know." He hesitated. "I'm sorry about this—"

"Don't you even start," James said sharply. "I'm just sorry that I forgot." He glanced back at Sirius for a moment before continuing. "Listen, it's still a few hours until sunset... Why don't you come in?"

"I can't," he said quietly. "I've been so focused on Romulus that I haven't had time to make preparations for tonight. I still need to get more healing salve, bandages, clean up in the basement..." He shook his head. "Thanks, though. I'll be by as soon as I'm able to pick him up."

"Take your time," James said, smiling a bit. "After all, I want some time with the third little Marauder here. I have to get my dose of corruption in at some point."

Remus chuckled tiredly.

"Take care of yourself," Sirius said quietly.

The werewolf turned his gaze on him silently. For a moment he said nothing before giving a small nod. "I'll try," he responded. Then with that, he gave an uncertain smile at the two men, ran his hand over Romulus's sleeping head, and turned away as he walked down the lane before he could finally Apparate away.

James watched the empty spot at the end of the sidewalk for a moment longer before he turns to look at Padfoot. "I can't believe we forgot," he said painfully.

Even Sirius looked guilty. "I feel like shite," he admitted.

James looked down at Romulus at hearing the curse word and smiled slightly. "I sure hope Rom isn't as smart as Remus claims or else you might have a very angry werewolf after you later when his son starts spouting that off every few minutes."

That managed to get a grin out of Sirius. "Merlin, I dunno how I've managed to hold my tongue around Polaris for so long. I just know I'm going to slip up."

The messy-haired wizard walked back into the living room where he found his wife kneeling by the playpin watching the boys play. She looked up at hearing their footsteps. "Who was that—?" She stopped herself as she caught sight of the toddler in James's arms. "Oh." And then realization crossed her face. "_Oh_, god. It's the full moon!"

James nodded guiltily. "Do you mind grabbing the bassinet, Lil'? Remus said Rom had been sleeping all day, and, well..." He gestured to the sleeping soundly infant in his arms.

Sirius smiled slightly. "Just like Remus. Out like a light."

"Lucky him," James half-joked as Lily came back with the bassinet that he requested. He gently laid the toddler in the bassinet before sighing. He looked back at Sirius. "Why don't you go with him? At least try to help make the full moon a little bearable?"

Sirius licked his lips, an aggravated look on his face. "And leave you and Lily to deal with three toddlers?"

"We can handle it," Lily piped in, though she kept her voice soft. She knew this was really not her argument.

"Why can't Peter go?" Sirius asked instead.

James blinked at that question. "I don't know... You think he forgot too?"

"If the rest of us forgot, then probably," the shaggy-haired wizard answered.

After a moment of hesitation, James nodded and moved to stand. "I'll go call him, then. See if he can at least pop by."

Sirius gave a relieved sigh. He could feel Lily's deep green piercing gaze following him as he crossed the room to the playpen, but he couldn't bring himself to care. While he genuinely did not want to be around the werewolf at the moment, a lot of it had to do with the fact that he wasn't sure if he was ready to be away from Polaris now. The little toddler was just starting to get to know him. What if in his absence he forgot who he was?

Those thoughts made him wince, though, as he glanced toward the bassinet. He doubted Remus had wanted to part with Romulus. In fact, the look on the tawny-haired wizard's face had said the complete opposite. It had been obvious that giving over Romulus had been more painful than the thought of what was coming at sundown. Remus didn't have the luxury of deciding not to leave his son's side. He would have to leave his son's side every month for the rest of his life.

Maybe Remus could be saved. Maybe apart of James was right, and maybe Remus wasn't completely lost to them. Maybe he could come back to them and everything would be great. But would Sirius ever be able to forgive him for turning to Voldemort at all? Sirius wasn't exactly known for being the most forgiving of people. In fact, he was known for the complete opposite. He could hold a grudge like nothing else, and he knew that even if Remus was "saved," there would be no returning from where they have gone.

No, things could never be the same.

"He's not there."

Sirius looked up as James came back into the room. He was dusting soot off of his shoulders from where he had attempted to fire-call their fourth friend. A slightly disturbed look graced his face making Sirius cock his head to one side.

"Something wrong with that?"

"It's just..." James hesitated. "He told me he would be home today. I wanted him to come see Polaris and Harry, and he said that today would be completely free..."

Sirius shrugged. "Maybe he changed his mind."

"Maybe," the stag animagus murmured.

But then Harry was suddenly calling out for him, obviously hungry, and whatever road that his mind was going down was lost.

For the next few hours, James would every so often attempt to convince Sirius to at least pop in to check on Remus, but it finally took Sirius turning it around James for him to go instead to get him to stop. Sirius knew that James was every bit as reluctant to leave Harry as Sirius was to leave Polaris. Of course, their selfish desires to stay put were for different reasons, but it led to the same action. They both just wanted to spend as much time with their sons as possible.

No matter how much they wanted to stay with their sons, though, every so often they would both find themselves drifting off into their own thoughts, their gaze toward the window where the full moon could seen in more and more detail as the sun started to set. Finally, Lily had enough.

"Oh, for heaven's sake! I can tell you both want to go, so just go!"

James and Sirius looked at each other, and though Sirius tried to protest, he couldn't deny what his heart was trying to tell him. After a short staring contest, they both sighed and nodded. They started to get up to leave when a beautiful silvery phoenix that came souring into the living room.

"Emergency Order Meeting in 5 minutes," was the quick message it delivered before dissipating.

James sighed, wishing neither of them had hesitated. "I'll grab Romulus." He walked up to the Lupin child who, though he had been sleepy since arriving at the Potter residence, was now perfectly awake. Much like the older men in the room, his gaze had been stuck on the window for a good part of the evening, though nobody really noticed.

A few minutes later, the trio of adults and the trio of toddlers found themselves tumbling out of the fireplace in the foyer of Alastor Mad-Eye Moody's family home. They quickly made their way into the basement, the designated meeting place for the Order. Moody's family home had so many wards on it that most of the Order had trouble even getting to the place at all let alone anyone not invited. It was, in other words, the perfect place for their secret meetings.

As they walked down the steps, they could see that they were not the only ones who were forced to bring little kids to the meeting because of the short notice. Dumbledore was at the back of the room, sitting at the head of the round table specifically setup for these meetings as he watched each person come in. As he saw them enter, though, a somewhat rare smile in these times graced his face and he stood.

"Are these the newest addition to the Marauder family that I've yet to meet?" he asked with a twinkle in his eye.

James grinned proudly, as if he was the father of the two boys. "Yup. This is Romulus, Remus's boy, and that's Polaris, the Sirius wannabe."

Sirius let out a bark like laugh at that description. "I can't help it that he has a great role model."

"Indeed he does. They all do, and though Minerva may shudder to think of them all entering the school together in ten years, I personally cannot wait," Dumbledore said with a smile. "May I?" he asked, gesturing to Romulus.

"Of course," James said, handing him over gently. "Remus would have wanted to be here, but..."

Albus Dumbledore tenderly cradled the infant to his chest, his eyes twinkling quite merrily down at the child. "No need to explain. I understand perfectly." Then, without missing a beat, he continued, "Hello, Romulus. You are going to be a very smart wizard when you grow up, aren't you?" In response, Romulus simply stared up at him with large, curious blue eyes. A moment later, he was grabbing a fistful of Dumbledore's beard and giving it a nice tug.

James snorted while Sirius laughed out right. "Sorry about that, sir," the stag animagus said with laughter in his voice. "I guess even being Remus's son doesn't automatically make him an angel. He is a Marauder after all, just like you said."

Dumbledore simply chuckled as he handed Romulus back over. "No worries, my boy. I would expect nothing less from either of these three." He smiled fondly at Polaris and Harry who had managed to drift off during the journey. "Well, I believe I have a meeting to start. We set up a room to the side for the children to stay while we talked. Don't worry, Pomfrey has assured me that she will be quite diligent in watching them."

Lily smiled at him. "Thank you, sir. That's very kind of you."

She led the way to the door that Dumbledore had gestured to before stepping inside. There was an assortment of toys, cribs, and beds setup with Madam Pomfrey sitting in a rocking chair at the moment with a redheaded baby in her arms. Pomfrey looked up as they entered and gave a smile. "Ah, bringing more to the pack, eh? Just set them down anywhere; I'll take good care of them. No worries."

They each said thank you as they settled the three toddlers into separate cribs. Neither Polaris or Harry stirred, and Romulus continued to simply stare out as if fascinated by the sights in front of him.

By the time they returned to the other room, the atmosphere had changed. No longer were jovial introductions and heartfelt greetings being exchanged. Everybody had taken a seat and waited, on edge, to hear why they were being called in on such short notice. James, Lily, and Sirius quickly followed suit, taking a seat in the three available seats. Lily looked at all of the sombre faces around them, feeling dread forming in the pit of her stomach.

"Where's Peter?" she whispered to James.

He looked at her and then around the table, also noticing his absence. "I don't know..."

"Thank you all for coming," Dumbledore suddenly began, looking around at all of them. "I unfortunately did not summon you for good news tonight, but instead to deliver distressing news that will most likely be gracing the papers in the morning. However, I wanted all of you to hear it from me first."

Around them, the other Order members were sitting tersely. Whenever Dumbledore called them in only to give them information, it never was good. Next to her, Lily had unconsciously latched onto her husband's hand, needing the little bit of comfort, and he was more than glad to give it to her, squeezing her hand back comfortingly. Sirius was leaning forward in his seat, looking around those in front of him so that he could see Dumbledore straight on.

"There was an attack in York tonight. Forty muggles were killed and thirteen witches and wizards." There were gasps all around the room. "One of our own was there." This was the part they were all dreading. The room was dead silent. "Dorcas Meadows was murdered earlier this evening."

"No!" Lily whimpered before dropping her head into her hands as she began to cry.

James immediately wrapped his arms around her and held her. They had all gone to school with Dorcas, and Lily had been particularly close to the older girl due to their similar interests. James had actually thought of trying to push Remus to ask her out before he realized that Dorcas's fiery spirit and stubborn nature was something better suited for Sirius. Speaking of his best mate, the gray-eyed wizard was simply staring straight ahead, his jaw clenched and his eyes shining. As far as James knew, nothing actually ever came of the banter between Sirius and Dorcas, but maybe that was the problem. Tons of regret and not enough time.

Selfishly, James found himself grateful that he had not wasted time with Lily.

He immediately felt disgusting afterward. How could he think that now?

"Dorcas was in the process of gathering research for me in a very sensitive subject," Dumbledore continued once the majority of the shock seemed to have passed. "My sources tell me that Voldemort," a shiver ran throughout the room, "himself sought her out and killed her. Her death will not be in vain. This leads me to believe that Dorcas's research was viable, and that what she was finding out may have been information that he did not want us to know."

Minerva McGonagall gave a great sniff. "D-do you have any information on what she was researching tonight?"

"No," Dumbledore said heavily. "However, I am of the belief that she would not have left the information unprotected. I would like to send some people up to York to search the area, look for any clues or even the research itself that Dorcas may have left behind. She was a brilliant witch, and I am certain that she could have figured out a way to mask the information so that we may be able to find it later."

Fabian Prewett stood up. "I'll go, sir."

"Thank you, Fabian," Dumbledore nodded.

"I'll go, too," Gideon Prewett said, also standing. "I won't be able to head out until morning, though... Babysitting my sister's little tyke."

Dumbledore nodded once more. "That's fine. Thank you two for volunteering."

"S-sir," Lily said, finally managing to find her voice through her tears, "h-how do you know that it was Voldemort?"

"Like I said, I have my sources, many of which I cannot divulge. A lot of my information, however, came from the Muggles who witnessed the event. Their descriptions matches Voldemort perfectly, and Lord Voldemort is not one who feels the need to hide whether or not he is doing something so there is no reason to assume it was not actually him." A silence fell over the gathered wizards and witches. "If there are no more questions..." He left that statement to hang in the air for a moment. "You all may go."

Later that night, after Romulus had finally drifted off again and Harry and Polaris had been put to bed, the three adults found themselves sitting around the kitchen table silently. Lily's eyes were red and puffy from the amount of crying she had been doing, and Sirius's eyes had been suspiciously watery all night. James had not gotten the courage to ask why.

"I can't believe she's dead," Lily said in a choked voice.

"I know," James whispered, squeezing her hand across the table.

Sirius looked up at them. "Have you two thought more about going into hiding?"

Looking over at him, his best mate answered honestly, "No." He paused. "But maybe we should."

Lily gave a small sob, but she didn't speak up against it. Not after the news they received tonight. Going into hiding would mean leaving everything behind, something that both she and James had been resisting for over a year. But could they afford to avoid it anymore?

Maybe not.


	3. Rewrite of Halloween

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter... Or do I?

**Summary: **Harry Potter was meant to be alone. Polaris Black and Romulus Lupin were never meant to exist. But in this reality, everything has changed, and in some ways, for better... But in others? For worse.

**Author's Note:** This is where the action really starts. Enjoy!

**The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth**

"_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._"  
>- Buddha<p>

**Chapter Three – Rewrite of Halloween**

"_Nothing on Earth (is) so beautiful as the final haul on Halloween night._"  
>- Steve Almond<p>

Lily sat watching her fourteen-month-old son play with his toys on the grass. She was only twenty-one years old in age, a fact she often forgot after everything that had happened in her life. She was one of the very few that could say that she had faced the most evil wizard of all time three times and lived to tell the tale. And she knew, eventually, she would have to face him a fourth time as well.

A prophecy, mere words and a singular ball of light, foretold this. The prophecy was not about her, though. It was about her son, her beautiful baby boy who was still so oblivious to the world. But she knew she would be facing the madman, for nobody was going to touch her son if she had anything to say about it. Everyday seemed like another reason to be terrified, and with the cool autumn air chilling her bones, she could almost let herself give into that fear.

Almost.

She nearly did just two months ago after her dear friend Dorcas Meadow's death. It was nearly the breaking point for her to finally say okay to the idea of leaving everything behind. But then she remembered what they were fighting for, and she knew she couldn't go hide while others – like Dorcas – were dying.

But the fact that even Albus Dumbledore, the most powerful wizard of their time, seemed to be afraid was daunting. He insisted almost constantly nowadays that she and her family go into hiding. In a way, they were in hiding. They were staying under the radar, not leaving the house except for small errands, and never alone. The house that they lived in was surrounded by layer upon layer of protected magic, but none of this was what Dumbledore meant. He had hoped that the family of three would go under one of the most powerful spells – the Fidelius Charm. This would make them virtually invisible to everyone who did not know the "secret" that only a Secret-Keeper could give.

But the idea of going into hiding that deeply, of completely abandoning their friends, the war, and everything they had worked so hard to build... They were still in the process of being convinced, but just thinking about how deeply they would have to go to hide just made her want to cry. Would she no longer be able to come out here with her son? Would she be able to just enjoy the breeze or watch a sunset anymore?

Would she become a prisoner in her own home?

She watched as her baby boy shivered in the cold October air and decided it was time to take him inside before he got sick.

"Come on, Harry; let's get you inside," she said and her son looked up at her with his wide emerald eyes.

She wondered how long those would last. Over the past fourteen months, he had changed from having her hands, nose, and mouth, to having almost all of his father's looks-except for his eyes.

"No!" he plainly stated and went back to playing with his blocks.

He also had his father's stubborn trait. Words would not stop him from doing what he wanted. A part of her was grateful for this. As long as he remained oblivious to the war and danger around them, she would be perfectly fine with having to deal with a difficult little boy.

"Please don't be difficult tonight, Harry," she begged anyway, despite her thoughts, and a familiar voice came from behind her.

"What is he being difficult about tonight?"

She turned around with a slight scowl. After all, it was mostly _his_ fault that Harry was so difficult. There was no way that he had gotten that stubborn streak from _her_.

"First of all, a 'Hello, Lily' and maybe a kiss would be nice," Lily said deadpanned and glanced at Harry who was now building a tower with his blocks.

"Hello Lily," James said before kissing her, which was quickly followed by a whistle from one of the men watching.

Lily turned to smile at the others that had arrived with her husband. Technically they were James's friends, his brothers even, but Lily considered them close friends as well and she cared for all of them greatly. They were hugely a reason why she and James could not just disappear from the world so easily. There were too many things to hold onto here.

"What? Are you jealous, Padfoot?" James asked and Sirius let out a bark-like laugh.

"Of you? Ha! Dream again, Prongs."

A moment later, there was a '_pop_'and a large black dog was standing in the taller man's place. The dog trotted over to Harry who giggled and said only one word.

"Snuffles!"

Lily laughed as the dog changed back to a man.

"Snuffles?" Sirius repeated with a slight grimace.

"You shouldn't have transformed, Sirius. We are reading him a bedtime story which happens to have a dog named Snuffles in it," she giggled. She looked between him and the tawny-haired man. "So, is it weird?"

Remus looked at her with a slight smile. "What? Not having Romulus around? It's... definitely harder getting used to than it was getting used to having him around, that's for sure."

Sirius gave a slight snort. "No kidding. I got up last night five times, certain that I heard Polaris crying. I'm losing my mind."

James grinned over at Lily. "They sound like new parents, don't they?"

"Hm, I can't imagine why," she teased.

Both of their canine companions rolled their eyes.

"This is Virginia and Dakota's first time actually having the kids, right? Without being watched?" James asked, curiously, just to make sure.

Remus nodded. "Yeah. It's more a trial run, really, to see if they even want to be... y'know... _this_ involved. They gave up being parents for a reason, and now they have Rom and Polaris for the entire weekend..."

"I'm pretty sure we're not the only ones nervous," Sirius finished for him with a slight uncertain chuckle.

Lily and James nodded sympathetically. They both remembered how hard it was to leave Harry alone after bringing him home from the hospital just to go on a simple date. They still hadn't been away from Harry for more than a day. The idea of it still kind of freaked them out, so they definitely held sympathy for the two men. Lily glanced at Peter who was standing a bit behind them, being far more quiet than usual. She was about to speak up about it when James cut her off.

"Harry, please, can we go inside now?" James asked and Lily knew he had felt her shiver again in his arms.

Harry looked up again with his beautiful eyes shining brightly. "Cold!" he cried before wrapping his arms around Sirius's neck.

Sirius picked him up and handed him over to James before they moved to head inside. As they walked into the house, Lily hooked her arm with James's and looked up at him. Quietly she asked, "Did you talk it over with them?"

James sighed and nodded.

"And?" she prompted.

His eyes looked downcast, and Lily felt her stomach drop. "They think it's a good idea," he said, a little shakily. "Sirius has offered to be the Secret-Keeper, and I can think of no one better."

"S-so... you're actually thinking about doing this?" There was deep sadness in Lily's eyes.

"Only for you... and Harry... and our family... If there were any other reasons, I'd throw the option out in a second, but... We have to protect Harry," he was speaking softly, but the other men had realized that a serious conversation had started up and had walked right past them into the other room to give them some privacy. From his arms, Harry had begun to squirm, not liking the tension around. Forcing a smile, James looked down at his son and situated him better in his arms. "I'll tell you what, Harry," he said as he followed the other Marauders into the other room. "You stay here with Uncle Peter for a while, and the rest of us will come back with some candy to celebrate Halloween properly."

The others all glanced at each other, knowing that this could be the last holiday that they spend together for a very long time. Seeing the looks, Lily felt her heart drop even further, practically hitting the floor, but she also knew that James was right. This, in the end, was for Harry.

"Candy!" the subject of her thoughts laughed and James handed him to Peter.

He kissed his son goodbye leaving with Lily, Remus, and Sirius with no indication that was a very big mistake that he was making. If anything, he thought he was making the right choice. At different points the past few months, both Remus and Sirius had come to him separately to talk about their suspicions about the other. Each conversation had royally pissed him off, but the only thing he could think to do – while knowing that someone was the spy – was to choose the neutral party to ever be the only one alone with his son if he or Lily could not be there. To him, that was Peter. Slow, reliable Peter.

It was a little over an hour later before they Apparated back to Godric's Hollow. They walked up the lane toward the Potter's Manor each of them in their own conversation. The tension between Remus and Sirius and how they were being sure to stand on opposite ends of the group was ignored by the fact that James kept Sirius engaged while Lily and Remus had their own conversation. Lately, the only thing that seemed to keep them from completely ruining a get together was their mutual love for their boys.

Before the foursome had rounded the corner, a smell of smoke reached their senses. Lily looked up and could see the smoke rising higher and higher in the sky; from this angle, it was unmistakable which home it was coming from. The Dark Mark was hanging proudly above the house. She dropped the bag she was holding and raced ahead.

"God, no. _Please_, no!" she cried.

She came to a dead stop at the gate. Rubble and flames met her eyes. She felt somebody come up beside her, but she couldn't bring herself to move. They had hesitated in going into hiding, and this was the result. This was what had happened to them. The smoke was rising higher and higher into the sky, and a green skull hung above their house, a serpent slithering through its mouth.

"Call the Order, Lily," Remus said quickly. "James, call the Aurors."

Even though both suggestions were good, neither of them could move. Remus and Sirius ran ahead of them, toward the smoking house. As Remus blasted the door off the house, Lily jumped out of her comatose state and screamed.

"Harry!"

She ran forward, James not more than a step behind her. They ran into the house behind Remus and Sirius who were already digging through rubble.

"Harry! Where are you?" She called and a faint cry was heard. Her eyes widened.

"HARRY! WE'RE COMING, MATE! JUST HANG ON!" James shouted through the house as he rushed toward where the cry was heard.

Upstairs in the baby's room, where the closet used to be, was Harry. He was wailing at the top of his lungs which seemed quite hoarse now. The fallen rubble seemed to have fallen around the little baby, leaving him with just spattering of white chalk as he cried. Lily swept him into her arms.

"Mama!" He yelped as she cried over him.

A crash sounded from downstairs. James shared a look with his wife before sprinting down the stairs to see what was going on. Sirius had pounced on a pile of rubble and was holding something with one hand as he stood up. It was a little brown rat. Sirius squeezed it in his grip, and its eyes began to bulge out of his head as Remus whipped his wand out and pointed it at the rat. Letting it go, Peter Pettigrew appeared in its place.

"Where were you headed, Peter?" Remus asked coolly.

"I-I was..."

"Running away like a coward!" Sirius barked.

A sudden thought seized the dog animagus and he leaped forward and ripped up the smaller wizard's robes, revealing his forearm. There, in all of its disgusting serpentine glory, was the Dark Mark. For a moment, there was silence as everybody stared in shock. Then James was suddenly running forward, grabbing Peter by the collar, and throwing him up against a wall.

"YOU BETRAYED US!" he yelled, anger running through him.

"I-I didn't have a choice! H-he _forced_ me!" Peter cried out, tears running down his chubby cheeks.

"LIES!" Remus shouted, uncharacteristically, from his left. They had only ever seen him this angry once before in all their lives. His wand was out, pointed straight at the other man's throat, looking like he wanted to curse him into next year. "We all have choices, Pete!"

"H-He would have killed me!" the rat Animagus wailed.

"Then you should have died!" Sirius roared from his right, his wand also out, looking about ready to beat Remus to the punch. "Died instead of betray your friends as we would have done for you!"

James glared at his long-time childhood friend for a moment before growling out in an almost dangerous whisper, "What happened here?"

"I-I don't kn-know, Prongs! I-I-It all h-happened s-so fast!" Peter squeaked.

Lily had followed James down the stairs, and now her eyes were flashing with anger and fear. How could this have happened under all of their noses? She looked down at her son in her arms, seeing that he was completely unharmed. The only signs of the trauma that he had endured were the chalk white dust that he was littered with from the drywall of the house and the tear marks down his cheeks. She took a shuddering grateful breath. Whatever happened here seemed to have gone terribly wrong. Harry gave a sudden tired whimper drawing James's attention to him.

"You thick little lazy good for nothing _traitor!_You could have killed my son!" James spat in his face before throwing him aside into the hot rubble. He rushed over to Lily, a sudden need to hold his baby boy overcoming him. Things could have gone so badly so quickly. He took the toddler into his chest and began to rock him, cradling him to his chest.

"P-Prongs, I-I would never d-do that!" He stuttered as he faltered to stand.

"_YOU LIAR!_" James roared, tears of anger and fear actually gathering in his eyes. This was almost overwhelming. Thankfully, Harry remained undisturbed by the yelling as if being able to sense that it wasn't directed at him._ "_You've been his spy this whole time, haven't you?—the Dementors will be pleased to see you." He hissed through gritted teeth.

James turned his back on him, unable to look at the man that had once been one of his best friends until all of five minutes ago. His eyes were on the top of Harry's head, trying to get the horrific images of all of the _what if _scenarios out of his mind, when he felt Lily's arms go around him. He sunk into her embrace, though he continued to listen to what was going on behind him.

Peter made another attempt to stand, but Remus shoved him back down, a dangerous glare on his face.

"An innocent _child_, Peter," he growled out. "You better tell us what happened or I won't hold Sirius back from doing all of the things to you that I know he's imagining up right this moment."

Peter's eyes widened as he glanced over at Sirius who looked positively murderous. For a moment, he thought Sirius was going to ignore Remus's words and just go for it anyway, but the black-haired man stayed where he was, his wand never wavering from its spot between Peter's eyes. Finally, the watery-eyed man found his voice and began to speak.

"I-I was supposed to hand Harry over to You-Know-Who t-today... T-today was the day, he said, wh-when the war would end. I-I don't know what he meant, but after our t-talk earlier, Prongs... I couldn't do it. I D-Disillusioned Harry and put a S-Silencing Charm on him... Put him in the cl-closet... And when Y-You-Know-Who showed up... I told him that y-you had taken him w-with you... He didn't b-believe me, so he d-destroyed the house and left." He paused for a moment before quieter, admitting, "I-I thought Harry was d-dead until I transformed and the charms fell off..."

Sirius gave a sudden growl and started forward, as if he was going to forego the wand and just decided to pummel him the good old fashioned Muggle way, but Remus was there, holding out an arm to stop him. The sandy-haired man said something quietly to the other, which seemed to calm him instantly. Peter watched them both warily, shaking all over and wondering how quickly he could get away if he transformed. Before he could even attempt his escape, Remus's wand was back on him and then – BANG! Thin, snakelike cords burst from the end of the wand and entangled themselves around Peter's stout form.

He squeaked behind the cords covering his mouth. He closed his eyes, knowing that transforming was his only hope of escape, but to his horror, found that he could not. His eyes swivelled around in fear until they landed on Lily, who had her wand pointed at him with a steady hand.

"Don't even try to escape, Pete," she whispered, tears in her eyes. "I've put a charm on you that prevents you from transforming." She paused. "I can't... Merlin, I can't..."

"Good thinking, Lil'," Sirius said sombrely, an expression that they were not used to seeing on his face.

For a long moment, the house was quiet as Lily lowered her wand and leaned back against the cracking plaster on the now charred staircase. Each of the Marauders were oddly silent as well, a deep betrayal seeping into three of the men and a deep fear settling into the fourth. Finally, James finally managed to control the wide range of emotions plaguing him as he moved to finally release his son into Lily's custody.

"We can't stay out in the open like this," he said, his voice low and shaking. "And one of us need to take Pete to the Ministry."

"No need, James," a voice said from the doorway.

They all turned to find Albus Dumbledore standing there with a grave expression. Behind him stood Rubeus Hagrid and Kingsley Shacklebolt, easily two of Dumbledore's most trusted members of the Order, perhaps other than the four people in the house who were not tied up. The white-bearded wizard surveyed the situation in front of him, from the house, to Peter, to the mismatched wizards standing in various states of shock, before he spoke once more.

"Is everyone alright?"

Lily nodded tiredly. "The place is destroyed," she said woefully. "But we're all okay."

"And Harry?" he asked, a heaviness in his voice.

"Fine," James answered, reaching out to touch his son's hair as if to make sure of that. "Voldemort was unable to find him."

The aged wizard gave a nod of understanding as he walked further into the destroyed home and came to a stop in front of Peter Pettigrew. He surveyed the other wizard for a moment. "So, this is our spy?"

Behind him, Kingsley gave a small gasp. "Peter Pettigrew?" It was obvious that he had just noticed the mousy man on the ground.

He was not the only shocked one as Hagrid began to sputter over his own words before finally managed, "Not little Peter! Dumbledore!"

Dumbledore held up a hand for silence and said, "Unfortunately, we knew there was a spy in our midst, and we knew it was one of our own friends. Does he have the mark?" This question was directed toward James.

The messy-haired man gave a nod. "Plain as day, right there on his arm," he said with disgust. "And we never even noticed it..."

"We were all blind to it, James," Dumbledore said gently. He turned toward Kingsley. "Will you make sure he makes it to the proper authorities?"

Whatever shock had overtaken Kingsley initially seemed to have worn off, as he was glaring full-forced at the watery-eyed man now. He gave an angry grunt as he stalked over to Peter and hauled him up. With a _POP!_, he was gone. Lily looked startled.

"Sir, the wards?" she asked, staring at him.

"Voldemort saw that they were taken down before entering your home," he answered gravely. "I must admit, I did not expect to arrive here to find all of you in one piece. I feared the worse." And finally, for the first time since arriving, he gave a small smile. "I am greatly relieved that all of you are alright. But more questions can wait until we get somewhere safe. Hagrid, Emmeline and Elphias will be around shortly to conduct an investigation for me. Will you fill them in on everybody's wellbeing?"

Hagrid nodded immediately. "Of course, Headmaster."

"Good." Dumbledore turned back to the still slightly stunned group of wizards standing there. "I believe it would be best if all of us returned to Headquarters."

Remus furrowed his eyebrows together. "All of us?"

He nodded. "It is no secret that besides Peter Pettigrew, you and Sirius are two of the Potters' closest friends. I would not be surprised if Voldemort already had Death Eaters staking out both of your places by now. It would be safest if you did not return until we had a chance to make sure things are clear."

Remus sighed but nodded. "Of course. But sir... What about Romulus and Polaris? They're with their mothers this weekend. If we're targets now..."

Dumbledore nodded, knowing where Remus's thoughts were headed. "I will have them brought to headquarters immediately as well. Do not worry, Remus. I will not let anything happen to either of them."

The werewolf swallowed thickly, trusting the man wholeheartedly. Next to him, Sirius gave a slightly aggravated sigh. He would have preferred to go get his son himself, but he knew that would just cause more issues than they needed at the moment.

"Sir, what about...?" James started, gesturing helplessly at his childhood home.

It seemed as though it was just starting to sink in that the place that his parents had raised him and where he had hoped to raise Harry as well was gone, destroyed. Rubble and smouldering wood replaced what had once been a beautiful structure. Lily rubbed James's back comfortingly, knowing that he was going to take this hard. This manor had been in his family for many, many generations. And with the amount of evil magic that had been released tonight, it would probably not be rebuilt for a very long time if at all.

"I will have Emmeline and Elphias grab everything that can be salvaged. Everything else will have to wait until further tests can be performed," Dumbledore said calmly.

"But—" James tried to say, but Remus nudged him and gave him a look.

"Dumbledore said the questions could wait until we got somewhere safer," he reminded him.

The word _safe_ seemed to have reminded James of what could have happened with Harry, and he immediately gave a nod. "Right. Well, let's get going then, shall we?" And with that, he disapparated with a _POP_! Shortly after, the rest of the wizards save for Hagrid followed.

* * *

><p>"I'm sure you have many questions," Albus Dumbledore began as he surveyed the four grown wizards in front of him.<p>

After arriving at Headquarters, each of the wizards in the room had taken a moment to get settled and get their bearings straight. Harry had been cleaned up and was now sleeping in a conjured crib off to the side in the room. Polaris and Romulus had arrived shortly after in the arms of Dedalus Diggle who seemed quite delighted to be handling the toddlers. They, too, were now resting in cribs off to the side.

The rest of them had changed wardrobe as needed to clean off the soot and dust they had unintentionally collected while in the shattered home. James had disappeared for about twenty minutes into the bathroom, and though they could not be sure what he had been doing, he eventually emerged with reddened swollen eyes that none of them commented on as he finally demanded some answers.

"But before you begin," Dumbledore continued, raising a hand for silence as each of them started to open their mouth and start to ask those questions, "Sirius, I owe you an apology."

That seemed to stun the Black heir into silence for a moment. Sirius blinked before finally managing, "...For what, sir?"

The aged wizard gave a small sigh. "I had been wrongfully suspecting that you were the spy."

His eyes widened slightly at the revelation. He stuttered over his words for a moment before finally managing to get out, "Me?"

"You thought it was Sirius?" James asked, his eyes wide as he stared at the headmaster. "Why?"

"It was because of me," a quiet voice said to their left. They turned to see Remus sitting there, staring down at his shoes with an unreadable expression. As he looked up and met their eyes, though, they saw the sadness and guilt swimming within. "I convinced him that it was you, Sirius. I was so certain. I'm sorry."

A stunned silence came over the group for a moment before Sirius finally managed, "Don't be." He swallowed. "I thought it was you."

If Remus was surprised by this revelation, he didn't really show it other than giving a small nod. He sucked in a sharp breath. "We were so wrong... so blind..."

"I believe that means that I owe you an apology as well, Remus," Dumbledore said softly.

Remus looked up sharply. "For what?"

"I would not be surprised if the reason why Sirius ever suspected you in the first place was because of the work that you have been doing for me," he said gently. He turned to look at Sirius. "Has it not been Remus's absences and secrecy that made you suspect him?"

Sirius stuttered for a moment before managing, "Well... yeah."

Dumbledore nodded. "The war is far from over, and while I still believe that it is safest if only myself and Remus knows exactly what he has been doing for the Order, you all should know that his absences are at my request as is his silence." The other three wizards in the room digested this information for a moment before the residual tension seemed to dissipate with their understanding. Dumbledore watched them each take in the new information that they have received and even managed a smile as Remus and Sirius finally really looked at one another without an ounce of suspicion probably for the first time in over a year. "Now, questions?"

"How did Voldemort not find Harry, sir?" Lily asked, her voice catching halfway through the question. "Last I checked, silencing and disillusionment charms weren't enough to scare him away."

"You would be correct, Lily, and I am still looking into this matter." He seemed to pause for a moment before leaning forward onto the table that separated all of them and continued, "However, I believe that Voldemort may have had no intention of sticking around tonight."

Sirius furrowed his eyebrows. "You mean he was on some sort of... schedule?"

Dumbledore nodded. "It is possible. It is only a guess, though."

James suddenly gave an audible tired sounding sigh. He looked up at the bearded wizard at the front of the table and asked, "When can Lily, Harry, and I return to Godric's Hollow?"

A hush filled the room, and as each of the magical people in the room watched the leader of the Order of the Phoenix, they knew that he was struggling with his words, trying to ensure that he did not say the wrong thing.

"Emmeline and Elphias are there now, and when they return, I will be able to give you a better answer." He paused, and they knew he was not done yet. "I have many theories about why Voldemort chose today of all days to visit your home, James, and those same theories tie into why he left as quickly as he came. If I am correct, you may not be able to return to your home safely for many, many years."

James closed his eyes painfully against the news. Next to him, Lily reached over and squeezed his hand, trying to offer him what comfort that she could even as tears filled her own eyes. She may not have lived in the home as long as James, but it was still the place where they had started their family. Now, it was just a hollow shell of the beautiful home it used to be, and they may never see it in its former glory again.

"Where are we supposed to go now?" James asked through the lump in his throat. On his other side, Sirius reached over and clapped a hand on his shoulder.

"You are of course welcome to stay here or at Hogwarts for as long as you need, James. At least until we get a definitive answer on the state of your home," Dumbledore said gently. He looked at Sirius and Remus in turn. "As are the two of you, depending on how safe it is to return to your flats."

* * *

><p>A few hours following their talk with Dumbledore, Elphias Doge and Emmeline Vance returned with only five small boxes of things they had managed to salvage from the house and nothing but bad news. Whatever magic Voldemort had performed that night in the Potter Manor had left a residual dark signature. Even the nosy Muggles were keeping away from the rubble, they reported. James took the news better than they expected, but they could understand why as he turned to look at Harry and managed to smile. He was just so glad that Harry was alright.<p>

Unable to keep his curiosity at bay, Remus pulled Dumbledore aside later that night to ask the question that had been bugging him since they apparated away from Potter Manor.

"Sir," he asked hesitantly, glancing over his shoulder to make sure that they would not be overheard, "how is it that Harry wasn't hurt? The house was pretty much destroyed; he probably should have been crushed."

"You may have already come to this conclusion yourself, Remus, but Harry is no ordinary child," Dumbledore began just as mysteriously as ever. "It is my belief, and Elphias's tests confirm this, that Harry protected himself against the falling debris with his own magic."

Remus's eyebrows shot up into his hairline. "Harry protected _himself_?" he repeated, shocked.

"One day, Harry Potter will be a very powerful wizard," Dumbledore said certainly.

For a moment, the young werewolf was silent before asking, "Do you think that's why Voldemort went after them, sir? Because he somehow knew that Harry was going to be a very powerful wizard one day?"

This time, he was met with silence and a penetrating gaze. "Remus, you are one of my most trusted members of the Order, but just as I do not feel it is safe for other trusted members to know about what you do for us, this is information that I am not willing to divulge to you at this time."

Remus stared at the headmaster with a shocked expression. This was not the answer he had been expecting at all. "So... you do know why they were attacked, then?"

"Yes," he answered gravely.

"Do Lily and James know?"

Again, he nodded. "Yes."

Remus glanced back toward the sitting room where he had left the others when he decided to come in here to talk to the head of the Order. He thought about how James talked to them about going into hiding and how both of them had seemed so skittish lately. Perhaps all of the tension had not been because of the spy, after all. He swallowed and looked back at Dumbledore. "They aren't out of danger, are they?"

"I'm afraid not," the bearded wizard said in the same grave tone. "But I assure you, Remus, that I will do everything I can to ensure their safety."

And Remus believed him. He had to.

In the five boxes that Elphias and Emmeline delivered had been an assortment of charred photographs, clothes, and knickknacks. A set of stuffed animals from Harry's room had been rescued as well, which had been of a stag, wolf, dog, and rat. When James saw the rat stuffed animal, he grabbed it and threw it into the sitting room fire. Nobody moved to stop him, and Harry did not seem to mind as he reached immediately for the stag and held onto it tightly. It had always been his favourite. Polaris and Romulus were quite happy to be able to play with Harry again. It had been far too long since the three toddlers had been in a room together, let alone allowed to play. It didn't take long for Romulus to claim the wolf as his own and for Polaris to attach himself to the dog. Harry seemed quite happy with this arrangement and didn't seem to mind sharing a bit.

The next day, they got confirmation that both Remus and Sirius's places were being staked out by Death Eaters, waiting for their return. One of Dumbledore's spies – who, he would not say – reported that Voldemort was quite angry about Wormtail's failure and was looking to take it out on one of the other two Marauders. Neither Remus nor Sirius seemed to actually care that much about the news now that they knew both Romulus and Polaris were safe with them; both of them had been planning on staying at headquarters with Lily and James until everything blew over.

And they knew that wouldn't be until Peter Pettigrew was officially in Azkaban.

* * *

><p>November 2 was not only the second day since the attack, but it also was Sirius's birthday. Nobody was really feeling in the celebrating spirit that morning, and though James told Sirius half-heartedly that he and Remus would take the old dog out for a few drinks later, that idea was squashed with the morning post. A brown-spotted owl came souring into the kitchen and dropped a letter directly in front of James onto his toast. The others watched as he unfolded it and his expression became hard and angry.<p>

"What is it?" Lily asked gently.

"It's from Kingsley," James said, his tone clipped. "Wormtail's hearing is today. He says that all of us should attend to give our testimonies."

"Happy birthday to me," Sirius said with a grimace as he downed the rest of his coffee.

James and Sirius had not been into work since the attack despite the fact that they were both highly respected and talented aurors. Luckily, Mad-Eye Moody who was their superior knew what was going on and saw it fit to unexpectedly land them both with vacation time.

"I knew he had a heart," Sirius had said jokingly when he heard of this.

But heading into the Ministry that afternoon was no laughing matter. Hestia Jones, a pink-faced witch that was a new recruit into the Order, had eagerly offered to babysit, and after assurances from Dumbledore that he trusted her, the quartet headed off. Every one of them was sombre and quiet as they made their way into the courtroom and took their seats. And then Peter was brought in. He looked no different than the last time they had seen him other than a change of clothes, but they all looked at him differently now. He was the traitor, the spy, the one that had nearly torn their little family apart.

No, he _had_ torn their little family apart, because he had been part of their family until he threw that away.

Peter was sat in the middle of the courtroom and chained to the chair. The fact that he did not even attempt to transform was a sign that Lily's spell was still working. Earlier that morning, Sirius had asked Lily how long she thought the charm would last. "It's supposed to last until it's removed," Lily told him. "But every spell eventually degrades, even without it being removed. So... a few years?"

"By then, the Dementors would have turned him into nothing but a babbling mass. I doubt he'll even notice," Sirius responded darkly.

It was a sign how deeply Peter had hurt her that Lily had not even seemed at all disturbed by Sirius's comment. Even now, she was glaring at the blond man as the session started with the prosecution's opening argument. Peter was being tried for only the attempted murder of Harry Potter it turned out, as they had been unable to connect him to any other crime. Even still, the prosecution was seeking the maximum possible sentence, and as each of the Marauders and Lily went up to give their testimony, they each did their best to ensure that he received it.

In the end, though, Peter only received five years in Azkaban.

"It was only assisting in an attempted murder," the judge declared to an outraged courtroom – most of the rage coming from Wormtail's former friends. "We rule for Pettigrew's wand to be snapped and for him to spend the next five years of his life in Azkaban. After that, he will be released with three years of probation before finally left to his own devices."

Angry or not, all of them stayed behind to watch as Peter's wand was snapped, even as they all held the knowledge that as soon as he got out of Azkaban, he would be sent back out into the world. There was nothing they could do, though, without being sent to Azkaban themselves. They left the Ministry, feeling angry and dissatisfied.

"Want to go get those drinks now?" James said hollowly.

Sirius swallowed and nodded. "Yeah."

Remus and Lily followed soundlessly. All of them could use a drink after that.

"Sorry about your birthday, Padfoot," Remus said quietly as they walked into the closest pub.

But surprisingly, Sirius managed a smile. "No need. It could have been worse, right? We're all here, the ones that matter anyway, and the rat is heading to Azkaban. That's all that matters."

Even James managed to crack a smile after hearing that as he reached over and clapped a hand on his friend's shoulder. "You're right, mate. That's all that matters."

Then an odd look graced Sirius's face. "James," he started, grabbing onto his friend's arm to hold him back. He waved Remus and Lily on and they respectfully kept going. "I've been thinking about what you said... a few months ago. About me thinking who should be Polaris's godfather."

James stopped at his insistence, not speaking for a moment after he heard his words. "And?"

Sirius licked his lips. "Has Remus asked you to be Romulus's godfather yet?"

Another pause. "Yeah," he finally answered. "A week after you asked me." He hesitated again. "I said yes."

The canine aimagus smiled. "Good. I'm glad." He took in a deep breath. "I'm going to ask Remus to be Polaris's godfather."

James grinned. "Really? And you're happy with that decision?"

"Yeah," Sirius said with a grin. "A part of me feels like I have to ask to make up for the complete and utter jerk I've been the past year... But another part of me just knows that I can trust Remus. I never should have let myself doubt that. I'm a bloody idiot for it, but—"

"Sirius, stop," James interjected suddenly. "You should be telling Remus all of this. Not me."

Sirius gave an uncertain laugh. "Yeah, I guess I should." He licked his lips. "What if he says no?"

James rolled his eyes. "He won't say no."

And of course he didn't. Remus simply smiled gratefully at his handsome friend and nodded. "I'd be honoured." And when Sirius attempted to go into his "I'm an idiot" speech, Remus simply smacked him upside the head and said, "I forgive you, you prat!"

Following Peter's imprisonment, James and Lily went looking for a new place to live right away. They knew that Voldemort's failure that night did not mean that he was going to give up on coming after them, and the last thing they wanted to do was put the Order's headquarters into more jeopardy of being found out. Lily was glad to find that James seemed to actually enjoy looking through all of the ads, both wizard and Muggle, as they tried to find the perfect new home for them.

They found a small country house with two houses nearby also for sale in the south of Wales. They tried to get Remus and Sirius to buy the houses, a part of each of them still terrified of losing their remaining friends, but the two men kept insisting that they had no reason to move.

"Come on. It'll be fun," insisted James.

Remus rolled his eyes as he stood, "James, I just really do not want that much space to myself. Sorry." Not to mention the fact that he wasn't even sure if he could afford a place like that.

"It's not like we won't visit any less," said Sirius. "You better install the Floo Network, because I'll be stopping by everyday to visit my favourite Godson."

"He's your only Godson," James said, rolling his eyes.

"Just think of it this way," Lily said, trying a different tactic, "Romulus and Polaris aren't going to stay teeny tiny forever. Eventually they're going to need space to run around and play, and the little flats that you both own are just not going to cover that."

Not too long after, Sirius and Remus finally cracked under their badgering and they both bought the other two houses.

"This is going to be great," James said enthusiastically as they all started to move in. "Just think: The next generation of Marauders, best friends since they were one. It's destiny!"


	4. The Return of Peter Pettigrew

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter. Sadface!

**Summary: **Harry Potter, Polaris Black, and Romulus Lupin: the next generation of Marauders, pranksters extraordinaire, and possibly the saviors of the Wizarding World. Eventually. Maybe. Right now they're just kids!

**Author's Note:** Been having issues with formatting. Hope it doesn't make the story completely unreadable, but I know the random scene changes can be a bit daunting without some sort of sign. Also trying out different summaries in each chapter, so if you read one that you think is better than the fail one I have up at the moment, let me know!

**The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth**

"_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._"  
>- Buddha<p>

**Chapter Four – The Return of Peter Pettigrew**

"_One of the best ways to keep friendship is to return it._"  
>- Anonymous<p>

_Four Years Later_

"Hello, Mr. Black, I am Hestia Jones. I'm with the _Daily_ _Prophet_."

Sirius looked up from his desk at the woman that stood in his doorway. He heaved a sigh. He really did hate reporters. They were always barging into his business. This reporter was a pretty black-haired woman with rosy cheeks. As soon as Sirius saw Hestia, he knew that he knew her. She was present in every Order meeting, and though she was generally rather quiet, she had caught Sirius's eye a few times, nothing that he thought on too long afterward. But now, here she was, introducing herself as if he didn't know who she was. That meant that this definitely wasn't Order business; outside of Order business, most of the Order preferred to pretend that they didn't know the rest of the members. They seemed to think that it made them safer somehow.

As far as Sirius was concerned, he wasn't going to give up his friendships just because it might keep him a bit safer.

"Mr. Black?" she inquired.

"Oh, er—yes. Sit down," said Sirius quickly, shaking himself from his reverie.

"Thank you," she said politely. "I'm not sure if your superior told you, but I am here to investigate—"

"The Azkaban Project," finished Sirius, "you and every other newspaper."

Hestia blinked at him for a moment before slowly smiling. "Well, lucky for you, I'm probably twice as honest as the rest of those newspapers and twice as stubborn about actually getting the truth published instead of nonsense garbage gossip."

It was Sirius's turn to pause for a moment. Then a smirk was gracing his lips. "Lucky me, indeed." Then, as an afterthought, he added, "I think I like you."

She laughed. "Shall we get started?"

"Lay it on me."

Hestia reached into her bag and pulled out a piece of parchment and a quill. With a tap to both, they began to hover beside her head, the quill at the ready. She was opening up her notebook when she noticed Sirius's unimpressed raised eyebrow. She simply smiled back. "Don't worry. You can read everything that I've recorded before I leave here if you like. I'm not like a certain other reporter that decided to give this nifty little spell a horrible name."

Sirius studied her for a moment longer before nodding. "I think I'll take you up on that offer."

She smiled back at him before clearing her throat. "Right then. What is your position in Project Azkaban?"

"Starting with the basics then?" Sirius said with a grin.

"You know I have to," she replied easily, a smile playing her lips.

"Has anyone ever told you that you have a beautiful smile?" What was the harm in turning on a little charm?

She ducked her head for a moment, a smile on her lips, and perhaps even a blush on those cheeks before she was looking back up at him, staring almost defiantly back at him. "Mr Black, the question?" she inquired, a single raised eyebrow attempting to show how unimpressed she was.

He chuckled. "Fine, fine. I am the Head of the Project. I suggested it and I get to run it."

"What exactly _is_ Project Azkaban?"

He thought about attempting to derail the interview once more but decided he shouldn't push his luck. "As you know, Azkaban was taken by Voldemort," the witch on the other side of his desk gave an unhappy shudder; Sirius refused to correct himself, "nearly two months ago and all of its prisoners released. Project Azkaban is a project to recapture all of its escaped prisoners and to regain control of the Azkaban prison."

"What is the state of Azkaban at the moment?"

"The Dementors are no longer under our control. And let's face it; they never were. The entire facility seems to have been turned into some sort of waiting ground for Dementors and perhaps some of Voldemort's favourite prisoners. It's hard to say for sure, though, until we can get some eyes in the place."

"How do you plan on getting eyes inside of Azkaban?"

"I can't disclose that information.

"Why not just leave Azkaban to the wastes and focus on capturing the prisoners instead?"

"Anyone who tells you that we have other locations to hold prisoners is fooling themselves. Azkaban is the only high-security prison that we have in England. Without it, we have nowhere to place Death Eaters once we capture them. There are holding cells at the Ministry, but those are meant to be temporary only."

"What are you doing to recapture the escaped prisoners?"

"We have Aurors on guard constantly, especially surrounding high populated wizarding areas such as Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade. The Head of that part of the Project is James Potter. He has eight teams searching every inch of the United Kingdom for them. We're doing it by foot, by magic, and even with some experimental magic that we hope will give us a big of an edge over the Death Eaters."

"What sort of experimental magic?"

"I cannot disclose that information."

"What are you doing to prepare for your infiltration on Azkaban?"

"We are creating simulation missions to get inside the prison. The Head of that part of the Project is Frank Longbottom. He has a model of Azkaban and is coming up with several plans that may be put into action soon."

"When you say soon, what do you mean?"

"I cannot disclose that information."

"What information can you disclose?"

Sirius smirked. "I can tell you that we're going to catch those sons' of bitches one way or another. You can count on that."

Perhaps it was the Order in her or she just took Sirius's words to heart, but Hestia grinned. "Damn right we are," she murmured as she moved to stand.

"Is that it?" Sirius asked, almost disappointed.

"For today," Hestia responded rather mysteriously. She flicked her wand, sending her supplies back into her bag save for the floating piece of parchment. She grinned at him. "Maybe I'll come back and see you."

"Oh, please do," Sirius flirted back. Hestia plucked the piece of parchment out of the air and moved as if to hand it to him so that he could read it over as they had discussed, but Sirius raised a hand and shook her off. "Don't worry about it," he continued. "Just make sure you talk about how devilishly handsome I am, and I'll be happy."

The black-haired witch gave a small laugh before showing herself out of the office. Sirius whistled to himself as he watched her exit, deciding that it was definitely not a bad view. Not at all. He heard slight laughter from his office doorway and managed to exit his tunnel-vision to realize that his partner in crime had returned from lunch.

"I know that look," James said, laughter in his voice.

Sirius grinned. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Next edition of the _Prophet,_" James started dramatically, "Sirius Black Sexually Harasses Reporter."

"Oh, sod off!" Sirius said, picking up a quill to chunk at his friend.

James lazily dodged it. "Your comebacks are getting lame in your old age, mate. Just thought you'd like to know." Then the laughter died from the stag animagus's face and he turned around to shut the office door and cast a Silencing Charm on the office. "Have you heard from Moony?"

Sirius sighed. "I wish. It's been two weeks... You think Dumbledore would give him more time to be with his son."

"You think Voldemort would give us all more time to be with our sons," James said faintly, moving over to his desk in their shared office. His eyes had fallen onto a picture of himself, Lily, and Harry, but he couldn't quite crack a smile at it.

"How's Lily doing, by the way? I haven't really talked to her lately... even if she is my neighbour and babysits my son regularly." Sirius rolled his eyes at himself, hating how busy this bloody war has kept all of them.

"Stressed," James said, not even commenting on Sirius's tone. He pretty much felt the same way. "She's worried about when Remus will get back... If he'll be in one piece... If the next Auror to die will be me or you... And it doesn't help that she's pretty much on house arrest thanks to the Fidelius Charm." He paused. "She wants to come back to work."

Sirius watched him. "What do you think about that?"

James sighed. "I don't like that she's pretty much a prisoner in her own home, but... I can't help thinking about the kids, you know? With you and me running off at all hours of the night... And Remus being sent away constantly by Dumbledore doing Merlin-knows-what... I don't know if I trust anyone else to watch them."

He hesitated for a moment before saying, "Before Moony left... He was talking about putting Rom into Muggle primary school—"

"No," James immediately interjected. "I know what you're going to suggest and... No. It's too dangerous for Harry. Anybody could just go up there and grab him, and I just..."

Sirius held up his hands in surrender. "I was just saying that's what Remus was thinking about. I definitely don't like the idea of putting Polaris through all of that, but Remus seems to think that it will be good for Rom. Maybe he's afraid of him turning out as awkward as he was as a First Year."

James managed to crack a grin at that. "Yeah... I don't think Muggle school will get rid of that."

Sirius smirked. "Yeah, I think the only way to insure that Rom doesn't turn out like Remus is to, well—"

"Remove all of Remus's DNA?" James asked innocently.

The two Marauders burst out laughing for a few seconds before managing to calm down. There was a comfortable silence as James started to shuffle through the paperwork on his desk that he had been ignoring.

"She was in the Order," Sirius said suddenly.

James looked up. "What?"

"The reporter that was here—She's in the Order. Hestia Jones."

James blinked and looked toward the door as if expecting to see her. He shrugged. "I don't remember." He smiled a bit. "But she was cute. You gonna...?"

Sirius grinned. "I don't know yet. Maybe. She is cute. Great smile... great legs... great ar—"

"I get it," James said, cutting him off.

Then, he continued, "But it was just weird to be staring her in the face with her pretending that she had never seen me before."

James shrugged. "Maybe she didn't remember you. There's a first for everything."

He raised an eyebrow. "Right," he said, not at all sounding convinced.

Across from him, he heard James give a sudden uncharacteristic growl. Sirius blinked and stood, walking over to his friend and looked over his should to see what he was glaring at. The picture of their former best friend, Peter Pettigrew, smiled back up at them. It was a picture of their school days. Both men's jaws were tight as they stared down at the picture. He was one of the prisoners that had escaped Azkaban during the breakout.

The file in James's hand crinkled as he held it with unnecessary roughness. "Where are you, you little bastard?"

* * *

><p>A little rat was scurrying through the field, passing field mice and other insects along the way. He was missing tufts of fur and was a rather skinny rat, but he had the image of a rat that had lost a lot of weight rather quickly. This rat was Wormtail, and he was an animagus. In his human form, he was best known as Peter Pettigrew, and at the moment, he was running. Unlike what most people considered to be "normal" for him, he wasn't running from someone – though some days, he dreamed about running away from the Dark Lord and never looking back. No, he was running to something.<p>

He had to fulfil the Dark Lord's wishes. He didn't have a choice. He had sat rotting in Azkaban for four years only for his Master to show up and set him free. Peter knew that he had only needed to sit and wait one more year in that Hell before he would have been a free man on his own, but there was no way that he could have denied his Master's call. Anything to get away from the dementors constantly tormenting him.

He had already upset his Master enough by chickening out with handing over the Potter boy. He was not going to make the same mistake again.

In fact, this was his chance to fix it once and for all.

Near a road that seemed perfectly abandoned, Wormtail took up camp and sat waiting, waiting for the right moment to arrive.

* * *

><p>Exhausted and holding his side, Remus Lupin trudged through Hogwarts. He was glad it was the summer. He really did not want curious students to be glaring at him as he walked through the halls. He loved Hogwarts and always would; it was like a second home to him. But trying to ignore all of the strange looks just got harder and harder knowing that one day his son would be attending this school.<p>

He walked up to the statue that stood out in front of the Headmaster's office and said, "Licorice Wands." The statue jumped out of the way, revealing the staircase that led up to the office, a path that he took probably far too many times during his time at Hogwarts. For a moment, a ghost of a smile graced his face as he stepped onto the staircase, but the movement sent a sting of pain run up his body wiping it off.

Remus knocked softly on the Headmaster's door and opened the door as he was told to enter. He immediately froze. The man that he least wanted to see – even more than students roaming the halls – was sitting in front of the Headmaster. Severus Snape turned to look at him and sneered at the sight of who was standing there.

"I believe this is when I shall take my leave, Headmaster," Snape said stiffly, moving to stand.

Albus Dumbledore sat on the other side of his desk, a bright smile on his face as if he did not notice the sudden tension that erupted. "Of course, Severus. We were finished anyway."

Remus pushed his back into the doorway as Snape brushed passed him, not taking any care as he bumped right into his side, causing a painful grunt to fall past his lips. He took a moment to catch his breath, realizing that he probably had a broken rib or two. Once the pain had subsided, he looked up to realize that the Headmaster was watching him with a worried expression.

"I'm alright, Headmaster," he said immediately, moving to sit across from him.

"I have told you time and time again, Remus, to call me Albus," was the first words out of his mouth as he watched him. He was quiet for a moment before saying, "Am I to take it that your talks with the Albanian packs were less than successful?"

Remus nodded tiredly, and Merlin, he was tired. He was exhausted, actually, and not just physically. When was this war going to end? "Two years ago, they were perfectly happy to hear what I had to say, but with Umbridge now heading the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures... They pretty much are done listening."

Dumbledore watched him quietly. "Have they joined Voldemort?"

"They didn't come right out and say it... but I believe so, yes." Remus found himself looking away, feeling guilty, as if this was his fault. In a way, it was. He was the liaison between the Order and these werewolf packs; he was the one keeping them out of the war. And now, they were joining Voldemort, and the full moons were going to get a lot more dangerous for everyone.

"All is not lost," Dumbledore said immediately, easily spotting the guilt. "There are still the packs of Berlin that you talked to last month."

Remus gave a small nod. "They really don't want to get in the middle of this war, and my contact told me that they were going to try to get the surrounding packs to do the same in France and Austria."

Dumbledore smiled. "I'm glad to hear it. What of Greyback? Any new developments?"

"Just that he's getting antsy," he said. "It seems that Voldemort isn't letting him hunt with his pack every full moon as was originally promised. It doesn't look like he'll break away from him, but if this keeps up..."

"A separation may be imminent," the wise wizard said slowly to himself. He considered his former student carefully. "What do you think this would mean for us?"

"Nothing good," Remus said immediately. He ran a hand through his hair. "The last thing we need are two separate enemies coming at us at once. It would spread us too thin. At least we know if we're combating Voldemort, we're getting to Greyback too. But if Greyback splits... I can only imagine the damage that would be caused, full moons or otherwise."

Dumbledore nodded. "My thoughts exactly."

A quiet fell over the two men for a moment. There was no telling what was going through Dumbledore's mind at the moment. For Remus's part, he could not help but dwell on everything that was happening. The war was getting worse, more violent, and instead of looking for allies, everybody was just desperate to convince everyone possible to just remain neutral. But when people like Umbridge were somehow getting into office and ruining the lives of part of a population, it was not surprising in the least that they were flocking to the person who was promising them freedom.

"Lemon drop," Dumbledore said suddenly, startling Remus out of his reverie.

Sometime during Remus's musings, the older wizard had pulled out a bowl of yellow candies and was now holding it out toward the werewolf. A small smile crossed his face as he reached toward one of them. "Thank you, sir." He couldn't even count the number of times that he and the other Marauders had sat in this very room, enjoying the yellow candies while they waited to hear their fate for whatever prank they had pulled. James and Sirius in particular had become quite addicted to the candies thanks to how often they found themselves in this very spot.

"How is your cover?" Dumbledore asked lightly.

"Still intact, sir," Remus said. "Nobody suspects a thing in the Underground. It's not that uncommon for uncommitted wolves to come and go as they see fit."

The white-haired wizard nodded as he heard this. This was information he already knew. "And how close is Jacob Price to meeting one on one with Greyback?" he asked, searching Remus's face.

Remus hesitated. Jacob Price was the newest alias that he was going by while in the Underground. So far, he had been spying on the Underground for nearly seven years, and he had gone through almost eleven "identities" during that time. Dumbledore was always sure to get Remus to change his story and appearance before the meeting between himself and Greyback could ever come to be. The main reason was that that first meeting was usually the initiation into the inner pack, and though Remus knew that he would learn so much more being on the inside of the inner pack, he also knew that it meant going on a hunt – a human hunt – with Greyback. And as much as he wanted to get solid information on the monster, Remus knew he wasn't willing to go that deep for it.

"Two... maybe three more full moons," he admitted

Dumbledore nodded. "Then we will have to work quickly, but not before you are given time to rest and recuperate. I would like you to see Madam Pomfrey about your injury before you leave here, Remus."

Remus sighed, but it was at least better than going to St. Mungo's. "Is that all, sir?"

This time, it was Dumbledore's turn to hesitate. There seemed to be something that the older man wanted to say, but he was not sure if he should or not. After a short internal debate, he finally leaned forward. "There is something that I must inform you of, Remus, that I believe Misters Potter and Black will find interesting as well if you would be so kind to pass it along?"

Remus blinked. "Of course. What is it, sir?"

"It concerns Peter Pettigrew."

* * *

><p>"Daddy!"<p>

Romulus's voice punctuated the comfortable silence that had settled over the Potter home, startling the two aurors who had taken a moment to sit in quiet contemplation in the kitchen while Lily bustled with the food. James looked over at Sirius and stood quickly, running into the living room where Remus was in the process of picking up his son and giving him a great big hug.

James found himself sighing in relief. He hadn't realized how worried he was until he saw his friend standing there, perfectly fine. "Hey, Moony."

Remus, hugging his sandy-haired son to his chest, looked over at him and smiled. "Hey, Prongs."

The auror gave his friend a once over and decided that it was pretty obvious that Remus hadn't had a good night's sleep or a good meal in several days at least. "Back to us in one piece?"

Remus shrugged. "More or less." He put down Romulus and grinned at him. "Why don't you go play with Harry and Polaris for a little while? We'll hang out later, okay?"

Romulus stared up at him with his wide blue eyes, searching his father's face for a moment before smiling and nodding. "Okay. You promise?"

He nodded. "I promise." He ruffled Romulus's hair and then watched with a smile as his son ran back to Harry's room, where he was before he happened to walk out just in time to see his father walk in. Remus sighed as he turned to look at James. "We need to talk," he said before he walked into the kitchen, smiling at the two others that are in there. "Hey, Lils," he said cheerfully.

"Remus!" she said with a smile, throwing her arms around him. "I'm so glad you're back safely."

"Always," he replied easily, before moving to sit across from Sirius. "Hey, Padfoot."

Sirius, who had been watching Remus ever since he walked into the kitchen, seemed to decide that Remus wasn't hiding any injuries from them (something that he had been known to do) and finally offered a relieved smile. "Hey, Moony. Welcome back."

James moved to sit between the two, looking between them. "Okay, what's up? What do you need to talk about?"

Lily blinked and moved to sit as well. "Talk about? What's going on?"

Everybody was turning to look at Remus. He sucked in a breath and sighed. "It's about Peter."

All three of the other occupants at the table had a reaction. Sirius's jaw clenched as did his fists which were sitting on top of the table. He seemed ready to reach over and punch the imaginary Peter in the room. James had sat up, looking eager and ready to hear the information. Remus knew how ready he was to catch the little rat again and throw him right back in Azkaban. Lily was just staring at him, as if trying to decipher what he was going to say before he said it.

"As you know, when Peter failed to hand Harry over to Voldemort, he pretty much royally screwed up. So, he had a lot of kissing arse to do to get back into Voldemort's good graces when he was broken out of Azkaban." It was a sign of how distracted by this information that Remus was that the curse word even slipped into his speech, and it was a sign of how attentive everybody was that nobody commented on it. "He..." He was struggling with his words.

"What is it, Remus?" James asked quietly.

"They know... about us."

Sirius blinked. "Us?"

"He told them about Moony... and Padfoot, and Prongs..."

James and Sirius looked at each other with startled expressions. There was a silence throughout the kitchen before James managed, "So... all the Death Eaters know... about our greatest weapon..."

Sirius laughed hollowly. "Why are we all surprised? I mean, seriously, that little rat couldn't keep his mouth shut about where Lily and James were. Why would he be quiet about this?" But there was a growl in his voice that showed how pissed off he was over this.

"Dumbledore knows," Remus said quietly, swallowing thickly. "He... he wants to speak to us."

Again, there was silence. "You... you don't think he'll turn us in, do you?" James asked just as quietly, knowing that Remus knew Dumbledore best out of the four of them.

"Of course not!" Lily interjected, though she was rather pale. "He might be disappointed or upset, but... He lets Dung do his business without getting involved. This should be no different."

"Dung isn't a highly respected auror quickly moving up the ranks either," Remus said while staring at his hands. "And he didn't earn Dumbledore's complete trust over the years either... just to break it like that..."

Sirius was watching him with a frown. "Moony, it was our decision. Whatever punishment that's coming our way should only be on us. You should be free of that!"

Remus sucked in a breath. "Look, that's not even the point." This was an old argument that they had had many times before. "Dumbledore seemed more concerned that Death Eaters who work in the Ministry still now know about this. You two... you guys need to get registered before something bad happens."

James ran a hand down his face. "Damnit. At least we have good connections. And at least we can release Peter's rat form to the public finally."

Sirius continued to watch his werewolf friend. "What about you?"

"What about me?"

"Well, Peter didn't only release our secret... He released yours, too."

Remus cleared his throat. "It's not a big deal. It's not like I have a job or anything."

Sirius shook his head. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. What about your work for Dumbledore?"

The sandy-haired man gave Sirius a sharp look, something flashing behind his eyes. "You know I can't tell you what I've been doing."

"No," he agreed, "but I can guess, and I'm guessing that it has something to do with the werewolves that Voldemort is recruiting. Now, all of the Death Eaters know that you're a werewolf, and so all of those solo missions that you go on... It's dangerous, Moony!"

There was a shocked look on Remus's face. Obviously, he had not realized how much James and Sirius had been able to guess about his missions with Dumbledore. He tried to compose himself, but all he could manage to say was, "They've always been dangerous, Sirius..."

James glared. "Sirius is right. You're not going to continue to go on them, are you?"

Remus looked at them defiantly. "I can't stop now."

"The hell you can't!" Sirius protested.

James opened his mouth to add in his two cents when an annoying buzzing sound started to fill the kitchen. He looked up confused. "What is that?"

Lily immediately stood. "The wards! They've been breached!" The colour had drained from her face. "Harry!" she cried as she raced from the kitchen with James right on her tail.

* * *

><p>A part of Peter was surprised to find that Harry was not alone in his room. Instead, there had been two other boys there, both of whom looked remarkably like Remus and Sirius, and the rat immediately knew that these had to be their sons. Those weeks leading up to being imprisoned were still so foggy to the rat animagus that it took him a little while to remind himself of the events that led Romulus and Polaris to their company. He grinned to himself, even while in rat form, knowing that if he brought all three of the boys to the Dark Lord, he would be praised highly. But that grin disappeared as he was suddenly filled with dread.<p>

What if the Dark Lord thought he was purposefully keeping that information from him? He did know of the boys' existence for two months without ever saying anything to him. Then again, the Dark Lord didn't have the obsession with Lupin and Black's death the way he seemed to now. He almost wanted them dead as much as he wanted Harry Potter. Yes, that's all that there was to it. He had to deliver all three boys to the Dark Lord. He would be rewarded, for sure!

It seemed as though the Death Eaters were as clueless about the existence of these two boys as they had been about James Potter's and Sirius Black's ability to transform into animals. He knew that Sirius and Remus had done their fair share to piss off the Dark Lord, so he could only imagine what pleasure he would have to dispose of the other two boys as well. And this time, he swore, he would not second guess himself.

There was nothing to second guess himself about, after all.

His "friends" had abandoned him in Azkaban, after he had risked his neck to save James's son. For months before that, he had tried to ask for help in the only way he knew how, by being in their company more often and leaving unexpectedly, hoping to rouse suspicion or hoping to have someone ask if anything was wrong. Nobody noticed. Nobody even cared. Why he had ever thought he was part of the group, he would never know.

He watched Harry sitting on the carpeted floor with a play Quidditch set between him and the Black boy. The sandy-haired boy was watching the game between the two other boys. They were completely oblivious to the rat sitting, waiting, under Harry's bed.

He knew the Fidelius Charm had been lifted the moment that the three country homes had appeared before his eyes while he had been waiting on the side of the road. Thanks to his former friends having relied on the Fidelius Charm, he knew that the rest of the wards would be flimsy at best. What they were, he could not be sure, but nothing had even attempted to repel him while he skirted into the newly visible house in his Animagus form.

The little rat scampered out from underneath the bed to the corner of the room where all three of the children would pretty much have their back to him. Then, slowly, the rat grew and grew until it took on the form of a watery-eyed, blond-haired man. Once this man had been rather chubby, but now he was a squat sallow looking man. As soon as he was transformed, a strange buzzing began to fill the house.

* * *

><p>"Uncle Remus is back?" Harry said eagerly as Romulus came barrelling back into the room, his green eyes widened with excitement.<p>

"Yeah, but he's gotta talk to your dad and Uncle Sirius first," Romulus answered as he sat back down on the carpet, crossing his legs beneath him.

"Let's go listen!" Polaris piped up, already trying to scramble to his feet.

"No!" Romulus cried, grabbing onto his cousin's shirt. "I don't wanna get in trouble right when Dad's gotten back." Seeing that his cousin wasn't convinced, he widened his blue eyes slightly and put on a pout. "Please, Polaris. _Please_."

He stared at him for a moment and then turned to look at Harry who simply gave a shrug. The green-eyed boy seemed perfectly happy to just stay sitting on the carpet. Polaris finally gave a disappointed huff before plopping back down. "You're no fun," he murmured.

Romulus simply smiled. "Thanks."

The three boys had grown a lot since they had first met four years prior. Polaris in particular was already the tallest out of the three of them, often being mistaken for seven instead of the five-year-old that he was. He took this as a compliment and seemed to think that this made him the leader of their little pack. The truth was that Romulus and Harry were often the ones deciding what they should do, whether it was Romulus's far too wise reasoning or Harry's need to calm the storm between the cousins before it erupted into something bigger. Added to Romulus's shy and quiet personality, this often led Harry to leading them around. Luckily, Harry seemed to have inherited quite a bit of his mother's mannerisms as well, so this leadership quality had yet to take on an arrogant turn.

Yet.

"Well, now I'm bored," Polaris complained, crossing his arms over his chest.

"Let's play another round of Quidditch," Harry said.

He reached out to poke the board game to wake up the miniature players that had fallen asleep on the field. They opened their eyes and glared at the offender, but Harry simply smiled. Sirius had gotten Harry this present a year ago, and he still loved it. Quidditch was easily one of Harry's favourite things in the world, as could be seen by the many posters that adorned the walls, and being able to captain his own miniature Quidditch team was _awesome_.

Polaris and Romulus didn't seem to share his same love for the sport, though they both enjoyed hearing James tell his many adventures on the team while at Hogwarts. Plus, they both liked playing the board game with Harry, though they often grew bored of it far before the other boy did.

The rules were simple and pretty much reflected the rules of the live version. The difference was that the players acted as the captains by selecting their team, adding or detracting from the star attributes, and sometimes having to deal with irate miniature players chunking their brooms at them. In other words, it was a lot of fun for the three boys when they were in the mood.

"Another one?" Polaris groaned.

"Yeah, c'mon," Harry said enthusiastically, already moving to set up the goals and pull out the miniatures balls. "You can be Puddlemere United if you want, too."

That seemed to cheer Polaris up and he smiled. "Alright! You reckon I should keep the keeper they have now or switch him out?" He was asking Romulus, but the miniature version of the keeper in question started to plead his case, even getting down on his knees to beg to keep his place. Polaris shook his head. "Pathetic."

Romulus laughed.

"You wanna play winner, Rom?" Harry asked.

"No thanks. I like watching better anyway," he answered, smiling at the way the players were marching around on the field, getting some "practice" in.

Harry hesitated for a moment, thinking, before nodding. "Alright. I'm gonna go with—"

A sudden weird buzzing sound cut him off, filling the room at such a high frequency that it caused the three boys to immediately reach up to cover their ears. Romulus made a face of discomfort as he looked between the two of the others. "What is that?" he asked.

"What!" Polaris asked back.

"I said, WHAT IS THAT?"

"I DON'T KNOW!" Polaris shouted back. "HARRY, DO YOU KNOW?"

But Harry wasn't looking at either of them. His eyes were transfixed on a spot over Polaris's shoulder. A chill ran up the Black child's spine as he suddenly got the strangest feeling that someone was behind him. As he finally managed to get the guts to turn around, he saw that there was. There, standing in the corner, was a man holding a wand that was pointed right at the three of them.

Nobody made a sound. Nobody moved. They all just stared fearfully at the unknown man standing there.

"H-Harry..." Romulus finally managed, scooting back some. His instincts were telling him to run, but he felt rather frozen. "P-P-Polaris..."

Before whatever else Romulus was going to say could be said, the door burst open. And then it exploded.

* * *

><p><em>Reducto<em> left Peter's lips the second he heard the door, panic and instinct taking over as he blasted the door and whoever was the unfortunate one behind it to bits. Three terrified screams emitted from the boys in the room as they shielded themselves from the flying splinters. His heart momentarily stopped as he realized that he might have just killed his friend, but it lasted less than a second.

"_HARRY!_" the unmistakable voice of James Potter cried as he came tearing into the room. And then their eyes met.

_So, it wasn't him who I killed_, Peter thought wildly.

But then the boys were scrambling to their feet and starting to run toward James, hoping to get to safety, and Peter knew that if they made it, they _would_ be safe. He wouldn't be able to defeat James in a duel. He just wouldn't. Not slow, useless Peter against the powerful, talented James Potter. He couldn't fail his Master again, though. Not again. So instinct took over and he lunged forward, encircling an arm around the messy-haired boy's waist and yanking him right off his feet.

Harry screamed and began to thrash in his arms immediately. He was crying, too, and yelling for his mother and father desperately, his arms attempting to reach out for James. The bespectacled Marauder made a move as if he was going to lunge across the room and snatch him up, but Peter was quicker. The sparking end of his wand was suddenly being jammed into Harry's neck causing both father and son to freeze and silence.

"_Peter_," growled James dangerously.

Peter backed away from the beyond angry looking wizard until his back was hitting the wall. Harry actually was quite a lightweight in his arms, no more than the weight of Moony's poorly packed trunks back in school. He probably could have snatched up two of the children had he been thinking properly, but so caught up in being surprised the other two had managed to run to the other side of the room. Now two pairs of sky blue eyes and chocolate brown eyes were staring at him in fear and shock from behind James's legs.

"Peter," said a softer voice suddenly. The watery-eyed man looked up to see the werewolf that used to be his friend – _used to be_. "Don't do this. You only had a year left of your sentence. You would have been free after that. Go with James back to the Ministry. Tell them that Voldemort—" Peter was the only one in the room that shuddered, "—forced you to leave or he would have had you killed. They will be sympathetic."

"You lie," Peter said with a quivering voice. A part of him found that that option to be so appealing. In his arms, Harry whimpered and gave a slight cough from the way the wand was being forced against his throat. "H-he will have me given the D-Dementor's Kiss first thing!" he accused, glaring at James.

And James did look livid. His face was twisted in anger, his whole body shaking, but his eyes were on Harry, not Peter. As he was called out, his gaze raised and seemed to harden for a second before he took a deep breath and shook his head. "No, I won't," James said evenly even through a clenched jaw. "I'd wish that on no one. Please... please just don't hurt my son," now his voice was cracking as terrified emotion shined through his eyes.

"H-he'll kill me..."

"We'll protect you," Remus said immediately. "Wormtail, come on... Just lower the wand."

His arm started to lower, as if of his own volition, and then he thought about all of the deaths that they could not prevent at Voldemort's hand and his arm shot back up. "Nobody can protect me from him... Except for me by being in the Dark Lord's good graces." Then he was shooting out a stunner blindly before apparating away.

He would have liked to have delivered all three to the Dark Lord, but...

_You can't always get what you want_.


	5. Ever Lost in Shock

**Disclaimer: **I do not own Harry Potter. I wonder if I could buy the rights, though... Hm...

**Summary: **Alternate Universe. The Marauders bond was unbreakable, until Peter threw it all away. Now, having survived Halloween, its up to the three remaining men to raise their children in a world where Voldemort was never destroyed.

**Author's Note**: This is the last full chapter written. Updates will definitely slow after this one. Just thought I would give you all a fair warning! Also, I have anonymous reviews on, and I love to hear from anybody reading, so... Please review! It always feel nice to get that little email telling me someone noticed my writing.

**The Sun, the Moon, and the Truth**

"_Three things cannot be long hidden: the sun, the moon, and the truth._"  
>- Buddha<p>

**Chapter Five – Ever Lost in Shock**

"_Courage, in the final analysis, is nothing but an affirmative answer to the __shocks__ of existence__._"  
>- Kurt Goldstein<p>

Long before Harry noticed the cold dampness of the ground or the soreness in his body or the way his hands and legs were bound, he noticed the absence of his parents. For one, he couldn't hear their comforting voices as they told him that the bad man showing up in his room was all just a dream. And for two, he was dealing with all of these terrible sensations – something that his parents would have never allowed. His eyes were already filling with tears before he could even crack them open.

He knew something wasn't right.

And as his bright green eyes opened to the sight of a dinky closet-like space with cobwebs and spider webs covering the corners, he realized he was right. He curled in on himself and pushed himself back against the corner, whimpering in fright. Where was he? Where was Mom and Dad? And Uncle Sirius? And Uncle Remus? And Romulus and Polaris?

Sudden muffled voices began to reach his ears, and he sat up straighter, going rigid with uncertain fright. Were those friendly voices or bad? But as he noticed an unsettling stutter and an unkind drawl coming from the two voices, he immediately realized that they fell into the bad category. He threw himself down back into a lying down position and shut his eyes, hoping that whoever it was would just think he was asleep and leave him alone.

The door to the closet opened.

"Is this him?" the drawling voice said.

Behind his closed eyelids, Harry could make out a light being shown in his face. He could imagine the man's wand being lit with the _Lumos_ spell that used to fascinate him when he was younger.

"Y-yes, Lucius," the stuttering voice replied. "I bound him and st-stunned him as soon as we arrived. I-I figured he'd be easier to handle th-that way...?" He sounded uncertain of himself.

The drawling voice did not respond in positive or negative to the questioning tone and instead said, "Did you not mention that Black and Lupin had children present as well?"

"Well, y-yes... But I could only grab one of them," he hastily replied.

Tears were beginning to leak out of Harry's tightly shut eyes, and he just hoped that they were no longer paying attention to him. What did they want with him? And Romulus and Polaris? What was going on? Why weren't his parents here yet? Didn't his father always say that he would do whatever he could to keep him safe? This didn't feel very safe...

"Very well, Wormtail. I will let the Dark Lord know. He will be... pleased." The stuttering one gave a squeak in response, as if surprised by this half-compliment. Then the drawling voice continued, "Let no one else in. He is the Dark Lord's alone."

The Dark Lord? Who was that? Was that the same as... Lord Voldemort? Sometimes, when Harry knew he wasn't supposed to listen, he would eavesdrop with Polaris on his father's conversations with his uncle. Romulus always pretended not to be interested, but it usually only took a few minutes before he was right there with them, pressing his ear to the door to try to figure out what was going on. During those conversations, a mention of a Lord Voldemort would often reach their ears, talks about his followers and the evil things they were doing. Without even knowing much, Harry knew that he was a very, very bad wizard.

But what would Lord Voldemort want with Harry? He was just a boring five-year-old little boy. What could he have possibly done to make Lord Voldemort want to see him? Kidnap him?

A terrified shuddering sob escaped his lips, and he immediately froze when he realized what he had done. The two voices were quiet now, and after a second, he heard one set of footsteps go gliding out of the room. A moment later, the second pair shuffled out and the door was locked behind him, leaving Harry to his terrifying thoughts.

* * *

><p>If James was not so numb with shock, he might have been livid at what had transpired and even angrier at the way the man in the room was taking the news. Albus Dumbledore stood at the head of the table, a pensive unemotional look on his face. Surrounding the table were some of Dumbledore's most trusted people, all of whom had decided to dedicate their lives to stopping Lord Voldemort. This was the Order of the Phoenix, and though the Order had been infiltrated by spies before – Peter Pettigrew being one of the most infamous of the lot – James would trust no others more with his life than the people sitting around the table at the moment.<p>

Even if some of them left him with a bitter taste in his mouth just to admit that.

Not everyone that fell into that category was at the table either. There were some that simply could not make it due to circumstances, others that had long since (or not so long since) passed, and then there was Sirius. James turned to look at his friend's empty chair to his right side. Nobody had dared tried to sit in it, knowing the unbreakable bond that the two men had with each other. Peter's _Reducto_ had probably been meant for Lily who had been the one on the other side of the door. It had only been Sirius's quick reflexes that had saved the witch further injury, but he had ended up taking all of the brunt of the explosion himself. Now, the wizard was holed up at St. Mungo's with at least a dozen healers working to try to put the pieces back together again.

James felt sick just thinking about it. But at least he knew Ted Tonks was there, even though he technically wasn't supposed to be working on that floor. Ted would make sure that Sirius would come out of it alright.

Wormtail's parting gift had been a loose stunner that he had thrown out. James had not been quick enough to protect Romulus who had been in its line of fire and the young boy took the stunner full to the face. The fractures he'd received to his right arm and the back of his skull from where he crashed to the ground was no worse than any Quidditch injury James had ever received, but a stunner like that was meant for adults, not five-year-olds. But Romulus, just like Sirius, had some of the best healers and medi-witches looking after him. They were already projecting that the little guy would be waking up by that evening, and they had detected no lasting spell damage.

James had never seen Remus look so relieved. And while he also was glad to hear that Romulus was going t be okay, he couldn't help but feel jealous that Remus's son was fine while his son...

He swallowed back a rush of emotion. He turned to look at his wife who sat on his other side. Her skin was unnaturally pale, making it stick out amongst her red mane. She had not said much since Sirius had pretty much thrown his body over hers, but he could see the guilt and fear swimming in her eyes. She had had just as hard of a time pulling herself away from the St. Mungo's waiting room as he had.

Next to her was Remus, who had decided to stare at a spot on the table as if his life depended on it. He, too, was looking pale, but his jaw was set and James could practically see his friend's mind moving a mile a minute. James wasn't sure if he was ready to hear what his friend was thinking about yet or not.

Following along the Remus's other side and wrapping around the table were the rest of the cast of characters that James had gotten used to seeing: Alastor "Mad-Eye" Moody, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Aberforth Dumbledore, Alice Longbottom, Frank Longbottom, Arabella Figg, Caradoc Dearborn, Amelia Bones, her brother Michael Bones, Elphias Doge, Emmeline Vance, Mundungus Fletcher, Rubeus Hagrid, Sturgis Podmore, Arthur Weasley, Hestia Jones, Minerva McGonagall, and much to his chagrin, Severus Snape.

Had Sirius been here, he would have been glaring daggers at the other man on principle alone. James took his dislike for the man with a bit more maturity, deciding to just completely ignore him. But today, if Snape had stood up and said that he knew how exactly to get back Harry, James would throw all of that out the window and kiss the man.

On second thought...

"I do not believe that the Dark Lord yet knows of the Potter boy's kidnapping," the subject of James's thoughts said suddenly.

Lily sniffled and looked at him. "What do you mean?"

"The Dark Lord is not one to keep a victory like this from his followers," Snape responded stiffly. "He would much prefer to summon all of us and brag."

"So, you haven't been summoned then?" James finally found his voice to ask.

Snape stared at him coolly for a moment before answering. "No."

It had only been within the last two years that Snape's work for the Order had been made common knowledge. However, James and Lily had both known of Snape's work long before then. Only two months after the attack on Halloween that might have ended everything had things not gone differently, Snape had visited them late one night. Or – more like had visited Lily.

"I just had to be sure you were safe," Snape had whispered in an almost tender voice to the redhead. James had been just about ready to burst out of their new bedroom and curse the slimy git into next week when he heard that. It was a tone that he would have never associated with Snape in a million years.

"How did you know?" Lily asked quietly. She was obviously trying not to wake up her husband, knowing his feelings toward her old friend.

"I tried to warn Dumbledore," he said instead. "I tried to warn you. But I didn't know – I thought maybe I hadn't done enough!"

"Severus..." Lily implored.

"The Dark Lord told me he would be coming after you... I had to protect you."

The fierceness in Snape's voice had been lost on James at the time. All he heard was the fact that Snape was a Death Eater, and that was why he finally burst out of the bedroom with his wand drawn. "You're a bloody Death Eater! Get out of my house!"

And then the signature curl of the lip was back on the slimy git's face. "I will gladly get out of here after I have finished my conversation with Evans."

"Newsflash, dumbass. She's Lily _Potter_ now," James said rather possessively.

His lips, if possible, curled even further. "So I heard."

"James," Lily said warningly, walking up to him and putting a calming hand on his chest. "Severus risked his life to warn Dumbledore to protect us." She reached up to force his gaze away from glaring at Snape and to instead stare into her green eyes. "He could have died for us."

He knew that the correct statement was that Snape could have died for _her_, but James Potter was not a jealous man. He knew he never had to worry about losing his soul mate to her childhood friend. He also knew better than to spit on those that protect you, willingly or not. Snape's debt had been paid to him in full, and even so, James would respect the man at the very least until something proved to him otherwise that he shouldn't.

James licked his lips. "You'll let us know when you are?" he asked after a moment of silence.

The two old enemies stared at each other for a long moment.

"Severus, please," Lily whispered.

Without his glare leaving James's face, Snape gave a tight nod. "Of course."

"Thank you," she breathed, moving to lean into James, exhausted. He couldn't blame her either. His adrenaline was still pumping after everything that was going on, and he knew that any second he could very well crash and burn.

"I thought the Potters were under a Fidelius Charm," Kingsley said in his deep voice, glancing at James to make sure this was accurate. James gave a nod. "How did Pettigrew manage to get past those defences?"

Dumbledore gave a tired sigh. "I chose their Secret-Keeper with utmost carefulness with hopes that Voldemort would not be able to guess who had taken on the task. It seems that either we have a leak somewhere in our midst or Lord Voldemort is cleverer than I anticipated him to be."

"Who was it, Professor?" Lily asked quietly.

They had never been told who their Secret-Keeper was. The day that the charm had been cast over their home, they had been asked to step out just long enough for it to take place. Dumbledore believed that the fewer people that knew who the Keeper was, the better, and the Potters had agreed so even they did not know. The only way they could even enter their home after the charm had been cast was to read a little piece of paper that had been left for them.

"Dedalus Diggle," he answered heavily. "When I was notified that the wards had been breached, I immediately sent Minerva to check on Dedalus. He was murdered in his home just mere minutes before Pettigrew showed himself."

A heavy silence followed this revelation.

"Surely there's something else we can do other than just sitting around waiting for Snape to be summoned," Frank said suddenly quite fiercely. James understood the emotion in his voice, too. It could have just as easily been his son instead.

"Not unless you know where Voldemort's hideout is," Moody said gruffly, his eye swivelling around in its socket to stare at the auror.

"Don't you know?" Alice asked, confused, as she looked at Snape imploringly.

Snape stiffened under the stare, but he did not regard the witch with the same disdain that he gave James or even Remus. "There is only one way in and out of the Dark Lord's chamber. When we are summoned, we are pulled directly to his inner chamber when we apparate. When it is time to leave, the only way out is to apparate from that same chamber. We do not dare _explore_ like some foolish schoolboy for other ways out. Even those that spend extended periods of time at the Dark Lord's side do not know of an alternate way out. I believe that only the Dark Lord knows that information."

"So, you have no ideas of where it could be?" Amelia Bones, the Head of the Department of Magical Law Enforcement, asked. Though her dark wizard catching days were far behind her seeing how she was mostly at a desk dealing with paperwork as a head these days, her instinct would always be to get the details would lead to a capture – or, in this case, a rescue.

"I, of course, have theories," Snape sniffed, as if offended by the statement. "But they have no basis in fact."

"Give us something, damnit!" James suddenly burst out.

Snape turned to glare at him, but before he could speak, James felt a calm hand rest on his shoulder. He turned to look at Remus who was regarding Snape with an unreadable expression. "What he means is," Remus started in a far calmer voice than James could muster at the moment, "that we would like to hear your theories, Severus. Farfetched or not, anything is better than nothing."

The potions professor pursed his lips unhappily for a moment. "Fine. But do not expect them to lead you anywhere useful."

* * *

><p>Sirius Black was confused. For one, he could not figure out where he was. The linens weren't patchy enough to be Remus's, silky enough to be those at the Potter's, and definitely not – er – <em>dirty<em> enough to be the ones found at his own home. For another, he felt terrible. Every piece of his body was on fire. Every breath seemed to send lightning through his body. There were actually tears – bloody fucking _tears_ - gathering in the corner of his eyes because of how much pain he was in. Even with all of that, he managed to hold in any sounds of discomfort for all of two minutes after his mind started to bring him back to the waking world.

A groan finally managed to break through his lips and there was suddenly somebody there, holding his clammy hand tightly in their own.

"Sirius," a voice said.

He immediately felt disappointment. He had been hoping to hear a familiar voice, one that he could recognize instantly, like James's or Lily's or even blood Snape would have been nice just so that he could start to make sense of _something_. But this voice was just on the brink of being a complete stranger to him. It was familiar... but not enough to be recognized. He forced his eyes to crack open. Finally, something made sense.

_St Mungo's,_ he realized with a groan. Not that he didn't love mediwitches and healers and taking them out on dates at every possible opportunity, but... well... _What the bloody hell have I done now? _

"Sirius, don't try to move," the voice said again, and he realized that he had started to move as if to sit up.

Bad idea.

He cried out unexpectedly, which is somewhat odd since he should have expected that with how crappy he was feeling already.

"Are you in pain?" the voice continued anxiously.

"Nah, I feel peachy," he somehow managed through a clenched jaw. Though, he realized the pain lacing every syllable probably gave him away.

"I'll call a healer," said the voice as they let go of his hand finally.

Unable to take the confusion anymore, he forced himself to turn his head to the side so that he could squint at the retreating behind of a dark-haired witch. But he knew many, many dark-haired witches. That did not really help to narrow it down, except...

_There's only one dark-haired witch with an arse like that. _

"Hestia," he said when she returned. She grabbed his hand again. "What are you doing here?" Not that he wanted to sound ungrateful, but last he checked they were still pretty much strangers. Right? Or did he really hit his head that hard?

Luckily, the witch didn't seem too disturbed by his pretty blunt question. "James, Lily, and Remus wanted to be here," she answered immediately. "But they're rushing to get things ready for the, ah, mission."

"Mission?" he repeated. "What mission?"

Hestia seemed a little caught for a second before a healer suddenly entered the room, saving her. The healer smiled at him in the ways that medical personnel often smile at their patients. "Hello, Mr Black. Are you feeling any pain?"

Sirius sighed to himself. "Loads," he answered, deciding just to be honest.

The healer nodded. "Hopefully, I can help with that." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a little red vial. She uncorked it and placed the glass to Sirius's lips before gently pouring whatever potion it was into his mouth. He dutifully swallowed whatever the concoction was, grimacing as he did from the bitter fiery taste that it was leaving in the back of his throat. "Do you remember what happened?"

"Not really," he admitted.

"Do you know what day it is?"

"Not really."

"It's June 20th," the healer told him. "You had a nasty run in with a Reducto Curse. The pain you're feeling is from the potions that we've given you that are working to regrow quite a bit of your bones and skin tissue."

Sirius blinked, feeling himself go pale. "Regrow...?" He didn't like the sound of that. He attempted to lift his head to look down at his body, trying to see what damage had been caused, but Hestia was there again, pushing him back down once more.

"Don't try to move too much," the healer continued. "It will slow down the healing process as well as not feel too good." She sounded far too pleasant for Sirius's taste suddenly. "Do you need anything else?"

"I think we're good, thank you," Hestia answered for him.

The healer nodded before looking at Hestia. "If he gets thirsty, ice chips only." She then smiled at Sirius. "It's good to see you finally awake, Mr Black." Then, she left.

"June 20th..." Sirius repeated. "It's Thursday? Yesterday... was Wednesday... Remus came back... the alarms went off, and then..."

"You were hit by a Reducto Curse," Hestia said slowly, filling in the gaps. "Well, actually, the majority of the curse was absorbed by the door, but you took quite a big chunk of it – and it took quite a big chunk of you as well." Sirius stared at her. "Oh, I didn't mean – You're fine. I mean, from the way I understand it, you didn't look too good at first, but they're patching you up good as new. Nothing to worry about."

"What mission were you talking about?" Sirius asked suddenly. The pain reliever potion was working its magic, allowing Sirius's mind to lift out of the fog a little.

Hestia hesitated, watching him for a moment. "I shouldn't say," she answered finally. "You need your rest."

"I'm going to get no rest worrying about what the bloody hell kind of danger my friends are in," he answered matter-of-factly.

She seemed to study him for a moment, trying to decide whether or not she should say anything. Finally, she sighed, obviously losing whatever battle she was fighting with herself. "Harry Potter was kidnapped," Sirius's eyes widened, "by Peter Pettigrew."

He just about threw himself out of the bed suddenly and probably would have had he had just a tad more strength. "That son of a bitch!" he cried.

But it didn't take much for Hestia to overpower him and push him back down. "Don't you dare attempt that again, Black, or I will put a damn sleeping charm on you," she threatened.

"He's my godson!" he shouted.

"And you can't even bloody walk! You have no bones in your left leg yet!" she snapped. That's when Sirius realized that he couldn't move his left leg past the knee. He tried not to panic, remembering what she said about them all growing back. "The longer you just lay here and take it, the quicker you'll heal. Pulling stunts like that just means you'll be here _longer_." Then she muttered something that sounded quite a bit like "bloody idiot."

A silence fell over them and Hestia finally let him go to sit back in her chair again. She was no longer holding his hand. Instead, her arms were crossed over her chest and her legs were crossed just the same. He could tell that he had annoyed her quite a bit with his little stunt, but there was still one thing he couldn't figure out.

"Why are you here?" he asked again.

"I volunteered," she mumbled, almost incoherently. Then she cleared her throat. "I'm not much of a planner, especially when it comes to missions such as these. Wish I was, especially in this day and age, but... Well." She shrugged a bit. "I told them to call me when they're heading out so that I could tag along, but James and Remus really wanted somebody here for when you woke up." She raised a single eyebrow. "Sorry to disappoint."

"Waking up to a beautiful face is never a disappointment," Sirius said flirtatiously even as he started to feel the tug of sleep pulling at him once more. Hestia smiled and reached over to grab his hand again. He squeezed hers back. "Thanks for coming... and for filling me in."

"No problem."

* * *

><p>"There are over two dozen locations here," James said, looking at the map in front of him. There were little red markers all over Europe and even creeping into Russia and Africa at points.<p>

"We have to narrow them down somehow," Kinglsey said calmly next to him, but even he looked frustrated by the amount of options they had been given. "I never did see You-Know-Who as a Paris man myself."

James almost cracked a smile at that.

"Remus, where are you going?"

The stag animagus blinked and turned around toward his wife. She was standing with Snape as they both tried to work on a tracer charm that could tell them where Snape was apparating off to. They had already tried tracking Snape many times in the past with hopes of discovering Voldemort's hideout but had never been successful. Lily had insisted they give it another shot, though, as if hoping that a few tweaks here and there would suddenly be able to get past the Dark Lord's defences. Nobody denied her this request.

His wife was staring at one of his best mate's at the moment, though, who was in the process of grabbing his cloak and fastening it around his neck. "Albania," the werewolf answered almost casually. "I have a few contacts there, and I think – and Dumbledore agrees – that they might be able to help. At the very least... maybe they'll be able to narrow down that list some," he said, nodding toward the map.

James knew immediately that by "contacts" he meant werewolves. He almost wanted to tell Remus to sit his arse down and not even think about putting himself in danger right now. After all, hadn't he just promised Romulus that they would hang out later? But then the selfish thought of _what if they know something_ entered his head, and he couldn't ask him to stay. So, instead, he simply said, "You'll be careful."

Remus managed a smile. "Of course. You'll look after Rom?"

"Of course," he answered hoarsely.

Lily went up to him and threw her arms around him. "Don't do anything stupid," she said, shakily. "I can't deal with both you and Sirius in the hospital at the same time."

Remus hugged her back. "I'll do my best." Then, he was heading out the door and apparating away.

James forced himself to look back at the map, even as it blurred before him through his misty vision. He cleared his throat. "No to Paris then," and he reached out and ripped off the marker that covered the French capital.

Around them, others were attempting to figure out other ways to help. Alice and Frank were attempting to figure out where Pettigrew would have taken Harry first if not straight to Voldemort; Amelia Bones and her brother, Michael, were in a heated debate about whether going in wand's blazing or taking a more stealth approach was the better option. Dung had left earlier, heading back to the black market side of things, claiming that he was going to search for Harry there as if he actually expected Harry Potter to be the newest hot commodity. But good intentions were only going to get them so far.

His son was out there in the hands of Death Eaters. He could be hurt, scared, lonely; he could be dead.

Arms wrapping around him and he sighed, leaning back into Lily. "James," she whispered, looking up into his face, "I need to talk to you."

Having expected some words of comfort or her seeking comfort of her own, he was caught a little off-guard. He blinked, turning to look at her, knitting his eyebrows. "About what?" What in the world could be so important that she wants to discuss it right now?

"I—"

But before she could another word off, there was a hiss from across the room. James spun around to see Snape half doubled over, clutching his left forearm. Snape's eyes swivelled to turn to look at Dumbledore, and the elder wizard gave a nod.

"Go," he said solemnly.

One last look was given to both Lily and James before the double agent was rushing out of headquarters so that he could apparate.

"Lily?" James asked quietly.

"We'll know if it worked in a second," she responded, already knowing what he wanted to ask.

She turned toward the map, both of her hands clutching James's tightly. Together, they watched as a soft blue wisp of light appeared on the map in the middle of Ipswich as soon as Snape exited the safety of Moody's home. Next moment, the wisp was zooming across the pond to land in southern Germany. James almost cried out in success, but then the wisp was moving again. This time, it landed in western Spain. Then again, to central Italy. And again—

"Is somebody writing this down!" James called out suddenly, frantically.

Next to him, he heard Frank scrambling to grab a piece of parchment and a quill before the frantic sound of scribbling started to sound in their ears. Off to Romania in the northeast. Then it was in the middle of the Ukraine. Then to Athens, Greece. It started to shoot off again when it suddenly disappeared.

James's eyes widened. "What happened?"

"Must have lost the signal," Lily said faintly. Hopeless tears formed in her eyes. "It didn't work."

It was the worst three words James could remember hearing. He closed his eyes painfully, bowing his head. What were they supposed to do now?

"What are all of these locations then?" Frank asked faintly, holding up the parchment.

James licked his lips and turned to look at the list. He shook his head. "Probably Voldemort's way of trying to stop people from doing exactly what we were trying to do."

"But that doesn't mean that it's useless," Amelia Bones said, putting her hands on her hips. "Maybe he actually has his Death Eaters visit his lair in their journey across Europe as an attempt to throw people off."

Alice turned to look at her. "Make us think that each of these locations are a wild goose chase while one of them might actually be the one we're looking for?"

Amelia shrugged. "It's possible. Or maybe there's some sort of connection between each of them. I'm just saying... we have more information than we've had in a while. Just because it's not cookie cutter about what exactly it is we just found out doesn't mean we should toss it."

Elphias Doge gave a nod from next to Dumbledore. "She's right. There may be a pattern here."

James licked his lips and took a deep breath. "Okay. Let me see that." He grabbed the list from Frank and studied it for a moment. "Three of these overlap with Snape's theories." He grabbed a green pin and tacked it next to Greece, Romania, and Spain. "There's absolutely nothing in common between these three places."

"Other than the fact that Voldemort seems to find them important enough to remember them," Dumbledore added.

The messy-haired wizard turned to look at his old headmaster with a somewhat frustrated look. He didn't see how that helped him. Beside him, Kingsley put a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Maybe you should take a break. It might come to you when you're not trying to bang your head against it constantly."

He started to protest when he felt Lily tug on his hand a bit. "C'mon, James," she said, not leaving him much room to argue.

He gave a nod and reluctantly followed Lily out of the room and up the stairs into the kitchen. "We might just have to go to all three locations and scour each of them blindly," he said hollowly, hating the idea. It would take too much time. Voldemort had Harry now. They could have less than five minutes left before their little boy was...

"If that's what you have to do, then do it. Do whatever you have to get our little boy back," Lily said fiercely, quite suddenly. He looked at her. "But I... I can't go," she added, her voice shaking.

James blinked. Less than thirty minutes ago, they had both been ready to charge into Voldemort's personal bed chamber themselves if that's what it was going to take to get Harry back. She was backing out now? "Why?" he found himself asking, dumbfounded.

"I..." She sniffled, bringing a hand up to wipe a stray tear away. "I've been suspecting for a while, but I wasn't sure... Not until twenty minutes ago anyway... And I can't... I mean, it wasn't planned, and I know it's terrible timing, but we can't exactly take it back..."

She was making no sense to him. "Lily, what's going on?"

"James, I'm pregnant."


End file.
